UFC heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier had planned on retiring by the time of his 40th birthday in March but has decided to extend his fighting career in the hopes of securing a lucrative fight with Brock Lesnar.

He told Luke Thomas on a recent edition of The MMA Hour, niggling injuries along with the prospect of a money-spinning bout against former UFC champ Lesnar have persuaded him to put any plans to walk away from MMA on hold.

Cormier fought in three world title bouts across two separate weight divisions in 2018, winning them all. The last one, a successful heavyweight title defense against Derrick Lewis in Madison Square Garden in November, was a learning experience for the former Olympian who was suffering from a thumb injury and says he rushed his preparations in advance of it – a mistake he doesn’t intend on repeating.

“The thumb’s fine,” Cormier said of his injury. “I think a lot of times you get hurt in so many ways, but then when one thing overtakes the other one, you almost forget about it and then you start to focus on the back and getting the back better, and then the hand. I just don’t know if I’m gonna do what I did in New York again, where I have to fight where I’m not 110 percent.”

 “We’re not waiting for Brock Lesnar. Because of my injuries, I’m just not available to fight. If I was available to fight, I probably would have fought Stipe already. But I’m just not available to fight right now so we’ll see what happens with Lesnar and then we’ll address what’s after that.”  

There’s nothing better than a great heavyweight fight. 

Maybe Brock will get back into the real fighting game once again. 

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