Daniel Cormier and Volkan Oezdemir are set to do battle.
Volkan Oezdemir is the man next in line for a UFC light heavyweight title shot. The Swiss native has quietly blazed past the entire division with only 3 UFC fights, the most impressive of which was a first-round knockout of Jimi Manuwa earlier this year. On Saturday in New York, Volkan Oezdemir commented on his upcoming fight to MMAFighting in a media scrum.
“Cormier and I is an interesting story because I am really appreciative of what he is offering me. He is giving me a big chance right now. He is giving me a chance to fight for the title and that’s amazing because it’s gonna be my fourth fight in the UFC. It’s gonna be less than a year and I will be fighting for the belt already. That’s crazy for me. I am really humbled with everything that has happened to me.”
When questioned on the legitimacy of the current belt, Volkan emphatically affirmed Daniel Cormier’s status:
“He is the champ. He is the champ. I have no doubt about that. He beat everyone at Heavyweight at Light heavyweight. He is the champ, now what happened with Jon Jones is a little bit controversial with the positive test. Now everything is different but Cormier is one of the toughest guys in the 205 division, and he is one of the best pound for pound also so it is amazing for me to be fighting him.”
Oezdemir also commented on the commercial aspect of his approach to the game.
“You need to go into the fight like a businessman, you need to promote the fight – you need to make stuff interesting for people. They want to see you… and anything can happen. This fight is gonna happen because we can see there are a lot of people talking about it and a lot of people that want to see it happen.”
“Everyone has is own reason to fight and the recognition we can get from it is also really big… it’s really amazing because we give everything wee give 100% of ourselves, we train really hard and some crazy stuff can happen – some knockouts can be nasty and you don’t want that to happen to you. So when the fans are appreciative of what you’re offering it feels really good.”
Oezdemir also commented on the presence of Luke Rockhold, training partner to Daniel Cormier, whose last camp was in Miami. Rockhold and Daniel Cormier both hail from American Kickboxing Academy in San Jose, but Luke has been training at Combat Club in Miami lately, and throwing some suspicions on his loyalty.
“He is on my side- he loves me. He is a spy maybe, but he is a spy for me maybe. I know they are good friends I respect their relationship. He is training with me I have no problems with that. (Cormier) can know all the secrets he is not gonna be able to avoid my power. So all the techniques he can do – it’s all about the power I have in my hands. This is gonna happen sooner or later, but I don’t think (Luke’s) gonna tell him something…he’s a straight forward guy. I like Luke a lot and I like DC a lot.”
Do you think Volkan Oezdemir has a chance to defeat Daniel Cormier?
Let us know in the comments below. Also, be sure to follow Generation Iron on Facebook and Twitter.
