Cormier talks Cain vs Brock.

"Cormier confident in Velasquez ufc 121 chances..."

Cormier confident in Velasquez's UFC 121 chances, believes Werdum deserves top rank

by Steven Marrocco on Oct 20, 2010 at 9:20 am ET
Strikeforce heavyweight Daniel Cormier sweat and bled with Cain Velasquez (8-0 MMA, 5-0 UFC) almost every day as the top UFC challenger prepared for his fight this Saturday against UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar (5-1 MMA, 4-1 UFC).

Naturally, Cormier is confident that his friend and American Kickboxing Academy teammate will emerge victorious. He's a little more conservative about what a Velasquez victory means in the grand scheme of the heavyweight universe.

"It's going to be good for him because I'm a friend of his, and I care about him, but in reality, we should probably see (Fabricio) Werdum shoot up the rankings after his win," Cormier told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) during a media day for Strikeforce fighters in San Jose, Calif.

Velasquez meets Lesnar in the main event of UFC 121, which takes place at the Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif., and airs live on pay-per-view.

The win Cormier refers to is, of course, Werdum's shocking upset victory over Fedor Emelianenko in June at "Strikeforce and M-1 Global: Fedor vs. Werdum."

Prior to the loss, the virtually undefeated Emelianenko had long been a dominant force on top-10 heavyweight lists, a statistic which drew the constant ire of UFC president Dana White. Lesnar, White said, had proven his mettle with victories over Heath Herring, Randy Couture, Frank Mir and Shane Carwin.

"I honestly and truly have not believed that Fedor is this great heavyweight that everybody thinks he is," White said in July. "Yes, back in the day in 2005 and before that, he was beating some great guys who were in their prime, and he was nasty. But to prove that you're the best in the world, you have to fight the best consistently. You have to consistently fight the best."

Emelianenko now resides in the top three of most lists, while Lesnar occupies the top spot.

And though Cormier believes Velasquez will soar in the pound-for-pound rankings with a victory on Saturday, he doesn't subscribe to White's criteria on determining the division's best. He believes experience is everything, even when it comes to his teammate's relatively fresh 8-0 résumé and recent win over decorated veteran Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira.

"[Velasquez] is going to shoot up the pound-for-pound rankings," Cormier said. "How valid is that? Brock is 5-1. He's a great fighter. But a win over Fedor Emelianenko should skyrocket you up the pound-for-pound rankings. Not a win over Brock Lesnar.

"Brock is relatively young. He's not an established guy. He's established because he holds the belt in that organization. But in terms of his overall game of MMA, it pales in comparison to some of the guys like Fedor."

On Saturday, Cormier says fans will get a good look at Lesnar's limits. The key, he says, is not in the punches that nearly stopped the champion in the first round of his most recent fight against Carwin, but rather the takedown attempts Lesnar missed.

"What took his confidence is when Carwin defended his takedowns at the beginning of the fight," Cormier said. "You have to find a way to drain his confidence, and I think the way to do that is by defending his takedowns. If you stop a few of them, hopefully he starts thinking in the back of his mind, 'OK, what do I do considering that this is going to be a standup fight?'

"You give a guy a reason to doubt. When you do that, it's always an up."

And in the midst of all that sweat and blood, it's been Cormier's mission to help Velasquez follow through on that idea.

"I honestly think we have more avenues to victory than he does," Cormier said of his teammate. "He's confident, but very aware of ... the dangers of it – the areas that he needs to be in to win the fight, the areas he needs to avoid. I think he's ready."

But will Cormier call Velasquez the best if he wins?

Don't be so sure.

For complete coverage of UFC 121, stay tuned to the UFC Rumors section of MMAjunkie.com.

I honestly cant wait for this fight.

Randy sounds like he is picking Cain also, he is too diplomatic to really come out and say it though right now.

Ya most fighters and real mma experts are picking Cain.

Yeah, the last guy Lesnar beat, teammates of Cain, and the largely anti-Brock crowd is picking Velasquez... Big surprise.

You know Couture has come in a few times to assist Brock in his training?

Pretty much what Ludo said, big shock Cormier is picking his teammate to win. On his opinion of Brock being young in the sport and not deserving the top spot, he's beaten 3 top 5 HWs at the time of the fights, and Cormier shouldn't be saying anything, he hasn't beaten anyone yet, is he still on the Challenerger Series? Also, Werdum does not deserve the #1 rank, he beat Fedor being a complete moron and pretty much putting himself in a traingle, he was last seen getting his decapitated by Dos Santos in the UFC. The winner of Borck.Cain moves to #1, loser remains at worst top 6, 5 for me.

LA wrote:

Pretty much what Ludo said, big shock Cormier is picking his teammate to win. On his opinion of Brock being young in the sport and not deserving the top spot, he's beaten 3 top 5 HWs at the time of the fights, and Cormier shouldn't be saying anything, he hasn't beaten anyone yet, is he still on the Challenerger Series? Also, Werdum does not deserve the #1 rank, he beat Fedor being a complete moron and pretty much putting himself in a traingle, he was last seen getting his decapitated by Dos Santos in the UFC. The winner of Borck.Cain moves to #1, loser remains at worst top 6, 5 for me.

A 47 yr old Couture and Mir are pretty weak top 5's.

And can I say Brock should not be #1 cause Carwin gassed after 3 minutes? In a title fight and the dude gassed after 3 minutes.

But they were, no denying that, Randy was coming off wins aginst Gonzo and Timmy, he was ranked 2nd at the time.

There's nothing valid in the second part, he blew his load going crazy on top of Brock for almost 5 minutes, a lot of guys would have been gassed there. He didn't lay on the ground and tell Brock to get on top of him after rocking Brock.

captain organic wrote:

LA wrote:

Pretty much what Ludo said, big shock Cormier is picking his teammate to win. On his opinion of Brock being young in the sport and not deserving the top spot, he's beaten 3 top 5 HWs at the time of the fights, and Cormier shouldn't be saying anything, he hasn't beaten anyone yet, is he still on the Challenerger Series? Also, Werdum does not deserve the #1 rank, he beat Fedor being a complete moron and pretty much putting himself in a traingle, he was last seen getting his decapitated by Dos Santos in the UFC. The winner of Borck.Cain moves to #1, loser remains at worst top 6, 5 for me.

A 47 yr old Couture and Mir are pretty weak top 5's.

And can I say Brock should not be #1 cause Carwin gassed after 3 minutes? In a title fight and the dude gassed after 3 minutes.

So we should rank a fighter lower by the manner in which his opponents conditioning holds up?

LA wrote:

Pretty much what Ludo said, big shock Cormier is picking his teammate to win. On his opinion of Brock being young in the sport and not deserving the top spot, he's beaten 3 top 5 HWs at the time of the fights, and Cormier shouldn't be saying anything, he hasn't beaten anyone yet, is he still on the Challenerger Series? Also, Werdum does not deserve the #1 rank, he beat Fedor being a complete moron and pretty much putting himself in a traingle, he was last seen getting his decapitated by Dos Santos in the UFC. The winner of Borck.Cain moves to #1, loser remains at worst top 6, 5 for me.

Lol I know. When I saw this earlier the first thing going through my head was "who gives a fuck what Cormier thinks"