UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Daniel Cormier successfully defended the gold against Volkan Oezdemir in the co-main event of UFC 220.
DC is planning on fighting a few more times before retiring, which he claims will come by March of 2019.
“Come March, I will have 12 months, at max, left,” Cormier said on The MMA hour. “I’m going to be done by March 20, 2019. I won’t be fighting again.”
Cormier started his professional MMA career on September 25 of 2009, which means the champion would retire a few months short of a decade as an MMA fighter.
A huge factor in DC wanting to retire next year is so the champ can focus more effort on his family.
“I’m done, I’m going to be done at 40,” Cormier said. “I won’t be back. There won’t be jumping around or ‘I’m done until I get the right type of fight.’ It’ll be over. I’m not going to be doing this anymore. I’ve said time and time again that I’ve lived a great life in sports, I’ve loved every moment of it. My family has revolved around sports. Not only my family, Selena and the kids, but also my mom and my dad. I’ve been the center of the athletic universe for my family for a really, really long time, and it’s time for that to be little Daniel and Marquita. It’s time for them to be the center of our athletic competition, and I just want to be one of those crazy dads that gets to yell on the sideline and just go crazy and brag about his kids. Like, ‘Yeah, my kid won this tournament, my kid won this gymnastics competition.’ That stuff excites me, man. I’ve always wanted that, and I’ve had my time. Since I was 15 years old, I’ve been wrestling international competitions and going to the Olympics and the NCAA championships, and fighting in Strikeforce, UFC, so I’ve had my time. I’ve lived a lifetime in the spotlight. It’s okay, I can be done with it when I’m 40 years old.”
There is no word yet on whom Cormier is going to defend the championship against next or just how many fights he plans on taking before the retirement date.
