Daniel Cormier raises red flag over UFC White House plans
Daniel Cormier believes there’s one major roadblock getting in the way of a perfect UFC White House event.
Fan discourse has hit terminal velocity since Donald Trump highlighted plans for a UFC White House fight night, with names like Conor McGregor and Jon Jones suddenly finding relevance again.
While it might seem straightforward, the alleged card suffers from one aspect brought on by Jon Jones’ retirement, which is the lack of American champions in the marketable divisions.
Jones’ retirement marked the end of an era. For the first time in 21 years, the UFC has no men’s American champions. The women’s bantamweight division has Kayla Harrison, but she isn’t the superstar you’d expect to headline arguably the biggest event in promotional history.
“You can’t headline the White House with, no disrespect to anyone, a Russian vs. a Spaniard,” Cormier explained on Good Guy/Bad Guy. “We can’t do a Brazilian vs. a Georgian. What do we do? We have to have an American in the main event at the White House!
“. . . Here’s the problem, you put Jon vs. Tom, Tom’s from England! I mean, we’re celebrating our independence from England on July 4th. We want to put Jon in there to represent us against Tom… what if Tom wins?!”
There is a possibility that an American men’s champion could materialize before July next year. Cory Sandhagen should be fighting Merab Dvalishvili for the bantamweight title, but right now, the biggest option would be to put together a women’s bantamweight superfight between champion Kayla Harrison and returning GOAT Amanda Nunes.
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