UFC president Dana White said there were two options for Daniel Cormier once Jon Jones was removed from UFC 200: a title defense and a non-title fight.
Officials went with Anderson Silva and did not force Cormier to put his light heavyweight belt on the line.
Had they elected to leave the UFC title on the card, Gegard Mousasi believes he would have been the one to challenge Cormier, who scored a win over Silva via decision. Mousasi (39-6-2) bested Thiago Santos the same night on the early prelims.
“I was very close – it was between me and Anderson Silva because those were the only options,“ Mousasi said (thanks to MMAjunkie for the quotes). “They said first that I got the fight, so we were vey happy. We thought we were going to eat spaghetti, not need to weight cut. And then they called and said maybe, and obviously I had to focus on my own previous fight.
“I only wanted to fight for the (205-pound) belt because you don’t get those chances a lot. Obviously I felt I had nothing to lose. And if you’ve got nothing to lose, you’re dangerous.”
Mousasi was originally scheduled to meet Derek Brunson this past weekend on the mega-card.
