Daniel Cormier Says Conor McGregor Needs to Fight on the UFC White House Card

All right, we're here with the man DC, the legend, 2weight division champion in the UFC, obviously a Hall of Famer, future Hall of Famer.

Uh, let's talk about the heavyweight division because that's, there's a lot of talk about that.

Is the heavyweight division dead because obviously we got Tom Aspinall at the, you know, at the top of that division, and we don't know when he's going to fight again.

There's no American men in the, in the ranked at heavyweight.

Like what's going on?

Well, I mean, it's not dead because Tom Aspinall is an absolute stud, uh.

I think Ciril Gan proved that there's a lot of competition at weight class for him in that last fight.

Uh, Jon Jones is still lingering.

I know you might wanna think that he's done, but he's still lingering, hanging around.

Uh, but the heavyweight division is always gonna be OK because it doesn't take much to get people excited.

The reason it was so hot when Tom Aspinall first won the belt because Tom looks so good, it's just a matter of him coming back and, and.

Just solidifying the fact that he's the best in the world, right?

I think that was a lot of, it was the way the last fight ended that made with the eye poke, but Tom's still dealing with that eye injury right now, right?

So it's like it was a real injury.

The bigger problem is the Americans because not only do we not have, uh, an American in the top 10 of heavyweight, we don't have an American in the top 10 pound for pound in any weight.

Justin Gichi now is the interim champion.

It's the only belt we have on American males.

But we're gonna fix that.

We'll start trading some wrestlers.

So, oh, so let's talk about wrestling, and we just had, we had, uh, the smashing machine, Mark Kerr here, and you mentioned your old rival Jon Jones.

He predicted that at this time next year, Jon Jones will be the heavyweight champion again.

What do you say to that?

I don't know, man.

I think, I think if Jon Jones is gonna fight, I think we have a better chance of seeing him fight Alex Pereira at 205, you know, at the White House.

That is the fight, at least in my opinion.

Jon Jones at heavyweight is great.

I think his best is when he's a 205.

Can you make 205 again because he's changed his body a lot.

He's gotten bigger, but I think he can still get the weight off.

Um, let's talk about retirement because Dana White always talks about you specifically.

Like he thinks you called it quits too early.

We just saw Volk put on a master class again, and you know, now he's people are asking.

Asking him about his retirement, do you think, I mean, you, you're confident that you retired at the right time, but obviously Dana thinks otherwise.

What do you think of that?

Dana, Dana says that, and I love that.

I love that he thinks that I still had the ability to compete.

I was 41 years old .

I mean, I was done, man.

I was, uh, I, I love that.

I love that he feels I could have competed longer, but at that time I, I, I was done competing because there's a thing that lives inside of you.

That when that fire dies, you can't force it, right?

Otherwise you start taking unnecessary losses, things just go bad and if you have an ability to to retire on time you do it and I've been blessed and lucky enough to have a job that keeps me close to the product and keeps me inside the action.

That I was able to retire when I thought the time was right.

So yeah, I love that.

Volk was Volk's 37.

That's time, but that would still be 4 years, you know, I, I, I fought 4 years longer.

Yeah, let's talk about broadcasting because you're obviously very close.

When I watch you or listen to you in the booth, it doesn't even seem like you're working.

You're.

They're having so much fun, especially when the heavyweights are banging, um, whatever the last fight on the last card is that was the most fun you've ever had watching a fight.

What, what has that transition been like?

It seems just like a it's been a natural transition for you.

It's the best.

It's the best.

I started doing, I started doing commentary in 2017.

It was my first time doing it, uh, by myself, so they prepared me for my career after fighting.

Zach Candido is one of the executive producers at the UFC.

He saw that I had some talent.

He put me on the desk way back in 2012, and then it just kept growing, and it kept preparing me for this job, and, and now I have the job that I have today.

But it was a long term vision by that guy that maybe this guy has something in the broadcast, uh, realm, and.

And it's worked out for me.

Speaking of broadcasting and the Paramount Plus deal, the sport's just getting so much bigger, you know, with the lack of American champions that we talked about.

But now you live here in the states, you can watch every fight for like 120 bucks a year or whatever it is.

How much of a game changer is this new partnership with Paramount?

Absolute game changer.

Paramount Plus is going to I always tell people this from in the arena experience to watching it on television, everything builds, and when you come across it, it's hard to not become a fan of it.

I think because it's free now with your subscription.

More people will come across mixed martial arts because when you're on pay per view, people have to go seek that out to buy that pay per view.

You might come across a UFC event.

You might be on your Paramount app and see live, click on it, all of a sudden you go, wow, this is awesome.

I believe that if 10 new people watch that and we can retain 3 every time.

The fan base will grow time and time and time again, right?

I think it's gonna just keep getting bigger and bigger.

What's that one fight you, you show to a fan that isn't necessarily into the sport that'll get them hooked?

I mean, there are so many great fights in the world, but I say go watch Max Holloway and Justin Gauche.

Go watch that from UFC 300, and you're gonna be like, OK, it has everything, right?

The ebbs and flows of the fight, the big finish, it has every single thing.

It builds.

Perfectly.

Yeah.

Last one for me, you just mentioned Justin Gauche.

What did you make of his performance against Patty Pimla because he went into that fight as an underdog .

People are counting him out now.

He's got UFC gold around his waist.

He might fight Ilya at the White House.

How special of a moment was that?

It was awesome.

Justin's one of my great friends.

To watch him go out there and compete, do what he did at 37 years old as an underdog against a young hot prospect.

It was amazing.

He deserves it, man.

Nobody, you know, a lot of times people find themselves in situations that they aren't prepared for.

Justin was ready and he took advantage of the opportunity, got the job done , and now he's a world champion again.

You know what's the best thing about that?

In 2020 when he was 32 years old, he became the interim champion.

He threw the belt on the ground, but 37-year-old man respects it.

Yeah, he holds that belt near and dear to him, and, um.

Let's see if he can become an undisputed champ.

That's a hard fight though.

Ilya is just really good, man.

Is he?

I mean, he is he the, he's good, man.

He's really got it all right.

He's got it all.

He's strong.

He's fast.

He can box.

He can wrestle.

Yeah, Ilias were special.

Last one, White House is what everybody's talking about.

Big card on June 14th.

Uh, there's gonna be 100,000 people across the street.

Um, I'm gonna be in there.

Who's more likely to fight on that card, John Jones or Conor McGregor?

I'll say Conor McGregor.

Listen, man, if you're gonna have, if you're gonna have the biggest fight card of all time, you gotta have the biggest star the UFC has ever seen.

I say Conor McGregor.

All right, my man.

Thank you so much.