During his appearance on Ariel Helwani’s “The MMA Hour” program at MMAFighting.com, former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Rashad Evans explained why he feels current UFC 205-pound champion Daniel Cormier will have to retire if he loses to former champion Jon Jones in their rematch scheduled for UFC 197 next month.
Evans explained to Helwani that D.C. can absolutely win, but if he doesn’t, he might have to call it quits.
“I think that DC definitely can [win]. He definitely can. You know, DC, he seems different this time around. He seems different this time mentally speaking. Honestly speaking, this is a fight that DC…he has to win. Like, if DC doesn’t win this fight, there really — he would have to retire if he doesn’t win this fight.”
Evans went on to elaborate on the opinion, explaining why another loss to Jones would put Cormier in a horrible position in the 205-pound class.
“It’s like, what does he do then? Does he try to face Jon again for the third time? Once you take away a man’s desire to be the best — or he knows that he can’t be the best — then in a sense, you just kill that man off. So if he loses this fight, Jon would have killed him off. There’s no reason. The competitive grind would be gone.”
Finally, “Sugar” Rashad spoke about a potential return to Heavyweight for Cormier if he loses to Jones, but why it might not be the best idea either.
“Maybe, maybe. Maybe so. I just don’t think that DC, being so successful with the FOX gig and stuff like that, I don’t think the desire to put his body through it will outweigh the life that he could have if he didn’t do it.”
UFC 197: Cormier vs. Jones II is scheduled for Saturday, April 23rd in Las Vegas, Nevada. Make sure to join us here at MMANews.com on 4/23 for the best UFC 197 live results coverage on the web!
