Daniel Cormier is confident that we will no longer be seeing double champions in the UFC.
This year saw Ilia Topuria vacate his UFC featherweight title for a move up to lightweight, Islam Makhachev vacate his lightweight title for a move up to welterweight, and most recently Zhang Weili relinquish her strawweight title to go up to flyweight.
A former UFC dual-champion, Cormier understands that challenging yourself in a second division represents the best fighters trying to make history. However, with Weili (26-3 MMA, 10-2 UFC) now jumping up a weight class to challenge flyweight champion Valentina Shevchenko in the UFC 322 co-headliner on Nov. 15 in New York, Cormier is almost certain that the dual-champ era is over.
“To me, it represents something a little bit different,” Cormier said of double champs on “Good Guy/Bad Guy” with Chael Sonnen. “To me, it feels like when Ilia gave up his belt, you started to kind of sense that the champ-champ era might be coming to an end. Like the simultaneous champ, the Conor McGregor, ‘DC,’ Henry (Cejudo) and Amanda Nunes. It seemed like that era, it might be coming to an end.
“This news solidifies that for me. Islam having to give up the belt because Ilia was going to fight, I understood a little bit more. Now, seeing (Zhang) Weili do it, especially when there’s no clear Ilia – Islam giving it up, there was a clear Ilia Topuria to step in. Now Mackenzie Dern is fighting Virna Jandiroba. No disrespect to them, but there’s no Ilia. But making (Weili) give it up tells me that era is over.”
With Weili relinquishing her strawweight belt, Virna Jandiroba and Mackenzie Dern will fight for the vacant title Oct. 25 in the UFC 321 co-main event in Abu Dhabi.
