Daniel Cormier: Alexander Gustafsson is tough but he'll never be champion
Daniel Cormier has no problem speaking his mind and talking a little trash, but when he addresses Alexander Gustafsson's record and the faults within his resume, he's not doing anything other than telling the truth.
Cormier took shots at Gustafsson during the “Go Big” press conference a few weeks ago when stating that the most memorable fight on his record was a loss to Jon Jones in 2013.
Outside of that one fight, Cormier struggles to see anything all that impressive on Gustafsson's resume besides the fights he won when he was supposed to win. Cormier isn't taking jabs at Gustafsson's record for the fun of it -- he's just telling it like it is.
"If I looked at his career and his resume, I would say he beat the guys he's supposed to beat and any time it's a toss-up fight he loses," Cormier told FOX Sports. "In the fights that he's not overwhelmingly favored, he really hasn't done as well as he should outside of the fight with (Jon) Jones where he was a huge underdog and he really fought outside of himself and I truly do believe it was him fighting his best fight and Jones might have fought his worst fight and it was super close.
"When he wasn't supposed to beat Phil Davis, he didn't beat Phil Davis. He was supposed to beat Anthony Johnson, but Anthony Johnson didn't roll over and he lost to Anthony Johnson. He was supposed to beat 'Shogun' (Rua), he beat 'Shogun'. He was supposed to beat Thiago Silva, he beat Thiago Silva. He was supposed to beat Jimi Manuwa and he won that fight. Many people make real good careers of winning the fights they're supposed to and losing the fights they're not supposed to win. I say that's what Alexander Gustafsson is. He's tough and he's always going to hang around the top, but he's not meant to wear the belt."
Cormier fires back at the notion that these kinds of statements are overstated hyperbole meant to tear down his opponent and promote a fight.
It's similar to the comments he made ahead of his last bout against Anthony Johnson where he stated that after a strong start the heavy-handed veteran would fade and look for a way out just as he's done in many of his past fights. He's not making outlandish and unfounded claims and while his comments might be acerbic, it doesn't mean they're not true.
"People always say 'oh you talk s**t about this guy and that guy' -- I speak the truth," Cormier said. "When I said before I fought 'Rumble', I said I'm going to push him and then he's going to roll over and he's going to let me choke him just like he did against (Josh) Koscheck and against Vitor (Belfort). People said 'oh you're s**t talking!' and what happened? He rolled over and he let me choke him. Just like I said.
"Then all I said about Alexander was that he hasn't beaten the best guys. He beat 'Shogun', that's probably his key win. We saw what happened with Jimi Manuwa against 'Rumble', he was outclassed. That's his other top-10 win. I'm not saying things that aren't true. I'm speaking the truth or the truth as I know it."
For all the hard truths Cormier has uttered in the lead up to his fight with Gustafsson this weekend at UFC 192 in Houston, he still looks at the Swedish light heavyweight as a tough opponent for his first title defense.
Gustafsson is a long, rangy fighter with good kickboxing and better than average takedown defense. Of course, Cormier knows plenty of guys with a similar body type and style as Gustafsson, but he'd love to know what the 6-foot-4 Swede is doing to find a fighter who can match his aggressive, dirty boxing with Olympic-caliber wrestling in his back pocket.
Here's a hint -- Cormier isn't sure there's one out there.
"I think he's tough. I think he's a good fighter, he's done some good things in his career. I believe stylistically he presents some problems if we allow him to present problems. I've got great training partners, I've got some big guys in the gym to help me prepare for him. That's the thing -- you can find a guy that moves well and that's tall. You can find a guy that boxes well and moves well and he's tall and he punches hard," Cormier said.
"It's very difficult to find a guy that can wrestle in the way that I wrestle. I truly believe it's easier for me to find a person to emulate him than he will have to emulate me."
No matter what Cormier says in the days leading up to the fight, he still has to walk into the Octagon and face Gustafsson for five rounds to defend his UFC light heavyweight title.
Cormier actually roots for Gustafsson to show up better than he ever has before but here's one more hard truth from the light heavyweight champion -- it still won't be good enough.
"I think Alex is a good fighter, he's a good opponent, but I'm not going to sit here and pretend that he's some kind of God," Cormier said. "He's tall but we're not playing basketball."
