Daniel Cormier (10-0 MMA, 7-0 Strikeforce) made his presence known September 10, 2011 when he replaced Alistair Overeem and defeated Antonio Silva in the first round via KO (punches). The former Olympic wrestler showed he was the real deal when he went on to win the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix by defeating Josh Barnett in the finals on May 19, 2012.

With one fight left on his contract with Strikeforce he was set to face the former UFC heavyweight champion Frank Mir. Then Mir had to pull out do to and injury and still without a replacement as of yet, Cormier talked to Sherdog Radio Network’s “Beatdown” show.

Cormier plans on his UFC debut being sometime in early 2012,

“I’m a heavyweight right now, Until they offer me a fight with Jon Jones, fighting for the light heavyweight championship and coaching ‘The Ultimate Fighter’ and stuff, yeah, I’m fighting at heavyweight.”

Former UFC champion and current Strikeforce commentator Pat Miletich even said that Cormier would “ragdoll” Jon Jones and take his title,

“That’s a huge endorsement by a guy like Pat, who’s accomplished as much as he has,” Cormier said. “I’m almost kind of speechless. I’ve never heard that before. … It’s good to have people believe in you. To have a guy that’s actually so close but still so far away from my career say that, who just views it from the outside, is really good. Because I’m sure if he was actually on the inside and saw the work that we put in and the training, he would actually feel more confident in those statements.”

Don’t think Daniel Cormier doesn’t respect Jon Jones, he definitely does.

“I think Jon Jones right now is the greatest light heavyweight of all time,” Cormier said. “Why? Look at the five guys that he’s beaten to retain his belt and become the UFC champion. When you look at guys like Rashad Evans and those guys, go back and look at their opponents and you go, ‘My goodness, man.’ How in the world is every single fight against a guy like that? Jon beat ‘Shogun,’ ‘Rampage,’ Rashad, Machida and Vitor Belfort all in a row. How insane is that?”
It’s not only the chance to test himself against a champion or win the title that’s intriguing to Cormier; it’s also the fact the world can get to know who he is,

“I think [TUF] gives the fans a chance to get to know me better, to get more people getting to know me and watching me over the course of three months,” Cormier said. “It would give me some time to actually get my weight down and feel comfortable. It would do a lot of good. … At the end of it, you’d get to see a really big fight.”

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