The clock is ticking.
Daniel Cormier, who’s coming off a convincing win over Volkan Oezdemir at UFC 220 on Saturday night at TD Garden, will turn 39 years old on March 20 and knows exactly when he wants to retire from mixed martial arts.
“Come March, I will have 12 months, at max, left,” Cormier said Monday on “The MMA hour,” per MMAFighting.com. “I’m going to be done by March 20, 2019. I won’t be fighting again.”
That is very specific, but it sounds like Cormier has given his future a lot of thought. And even though he showed Saturday he still has plenty left in the tank, the UFC light heavyweight champion is more than ready to start contemplating life after leaving the octagon for good.
“I’m done, I’m going to be done at 40,” Cormier said. “I won’t be back. There won’t be jumping around or ‘I’m done until I get the right type of fight.’ It’ll be over. I’m not going to be doing this anymore.
“I’ve said time and time again that I’ve lived a great life in sports, I’ve loved every moment of it. My family has revolved around sports. Not only my family, Selena and the kids, but also my mom and my dad. I’ve been the center of the athletic universe for my family for a really, really long time, and it’s time for that to be little Daniel and Marquita. It’s time for them to be the center of our athletic competition, and I just want to be one of those crazy dads that gets to yell on the sideline and just go crazy and brag about his kids.
“Like, ‘Yeah, my kid won this tournament, my kid won this gymnastics competition.’ That stuff excites me, man. I’ve always wanted that, and I’ve had my time. Since I was 15 years old, I’ve been wrestling international competitions and going to the Olympics and the NCAA championships, and fighting in Strikeforce, UFC, so I’ve had my time. I’ve lived a lifetime in the spotlight. It’s OK, I can be done with it when I’m 40 years old.”
Cormier isn’t sure what’s next after defeating Oezdemir, although he shot down the idea of moving up to heavyweight to fight Stipe Miocic in a champion vs. champion showdown.
Cormier sure seems content with how his career has gone, though, and who could blame him? Regardless of what happens over the next 14 months, DC will walk away as one of the greatest MMA fighters of all time.
