“Dana White called me and he said if it’s a no contest, then the fight didn’t happen,” Cormier said last week on UFC Tonight. “If one of you guys would have missed weight, he would have won the fight, you still would have kept the belt. He said cause of that, the championship is getting returned to you. The fight is a no contest.
“If he cheated, he could not have fought and cheated and still won the fight. So once again, I’m the UFC champion.”
That's the easy part. Cormier is a smart man. He understands that, logically, he was cheated. The sport was cheated. The fans were cheated. When the fight was changed to a no contest, it's as if the fight never happened.
Only, it did happen. That's where things get muddy.
Cormier understands that he is the rightful owner of the UFC light heavyweight championship. But, while the record books can be erased, his memories of the fight can't.
“I am (the champion) because if the competition was unfair then I guess it doesn't count. But I know what UFC 214 was. I experienced it myself. I was there,” he continued. “In my mind, I lost the competition. So, it is kind of an odd question right now under the circumstances.
“To me, the competitor, it's very difficult.”
Before he found out that he would be reinstated as champion, after he had lost to Jones for a second time, Cormier was so upset that he wanted to throw his UFC belts away. His wife stopped him.
He instead settled for putting them away in a closet, where they remain. Despite logic dictating his circumstance, Cormier isn't ready to face those belts.
“Yes, I am the champion. I didn't get a fair shake; that's not cool. But I know I lost the last fight. I have to fix that before I can feel completely secure in my title again.”
https://sports.yahoo.com/daniel-cormier-still-odds-being-handed-ufc-belt-120727421--mma.html
