Cormier: I have to be careful first seven minutes vs. Rumble
Daniel Cormier: “The reality is, I’ve felt him over the course of 14 minutes now and I know the difference in his power from minute one when he dropped me, to minute 13.”
UFC light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier appeared recently on the Anik and Florian podcast and discussed his rematch with Anthony Johnson at UFC 210 on April 8, 2017 in Buffalo, New York.
I have to be careful in the first seven minutes,” said Cormier, as transcribed byJed Meshew for MMA Fighting. “Because the reality is, I’ve felt him over the course of 14 minutes now and I know the difference in his power from minute one when he dropped me, to minute 13. So I can base that on experience. I felt him at minute 13 and granted, he’s still very powerful, but it isn’t that same explosive power that’s there in minute one, two, three, four, of the very first round. So I’ve really taken into account the beginning of the fight, being very aware, being ready to go from the start, and making sure I’m implementing my game plan from the first bell all the way until I finish the fight.
Cormier’s math is solid. Since losing to DC in May of 2015, Johnson has won his last three fights in a combined 7:07.
I anticipate a much better version of the ‘Rumble’ I fought last time,” said Cormier. “A guy that’s worked on the areas that he’s struggled in and a guy that’s addressed them. A guy that’s coming in confident and is coming in trying to finish the fight. I feel like we have trained for a better version of him. I feel like we’ve covered all of our bases, dotted our I’s and crossed our T’s. We’ve worked so much in the areas we feel we struggled in last time, and even in the areas that we were successful, we still have to improve in every facet of our game.