Daniel Cormier’s next heavyweight fight will not come against Brock Lesnar.
UFC president Dana White confirmed to ESPN on Tuesday that Cormier will defend his heavyweight title against Derrick Lewis at UFC 230 on Nov. 3.
There’s been plenty of talk about Cormier potentially defending his heavyweight title against Lesnar in 2019, but the two-division champion expressed a willingness to fight one more time in 2018 after defeating Stipe Miocic at UFC 226 on July 7 and the company seemingly wanted to enhance next month’s pay-per-view event at Madison Square Garden in New York.
Lewis is coming off a come-from-behind, knock-out win over Alexander Volkov at UFC 229 this past weekend in Las Vegas. He’s won nine of his last 10 fights dating back to October 2015, with his only loss coming against Mark Hunt in June 2017.
Cormier, who also holds the UFC light heavyweight title, turns 40 next March and has said he plans to retire around then. So it’ll be interesting to see what happens if Cormier successfully defends his belt against Lewis.
A lightweight fight between Nate Diaz and Dustin Poirier is scheduled to serve as the co-main event for UFC 230. Luck Rockhold also is scheduled to fight Chris Weidman in a middleweight clash.
