Daniel Cormier hopes UFC 206 doesn’t get ‘lost’ after Georges St-Pierre drama

Daniel Cormier wants to make the most out of his UFC 206 pay-per-view revenue, and he knows he'll need Georges St-Pierre to do that.

Earlier this month, it was announced that Cormier would be defending his UFC light heavyweight title in a rematch against Anthony Johnson at UFC 206 in Toronto, Canada. This title fight was never assigned as the main event of the card, creating speculation for the return of Canada’s St-Pierre as the headliner of the event.

However, on Monday’s edition of The MMA Hour St-Pierre said his lawyer terminated his contract with the UFC and that he is now a free agent, ending the possibility of St-Pierre’s long-awaited comeback at Canada’s UFC 206. Without St-Pierre, who’s one of the top pay-per-view draws in the company’s history, the amount of pay-per-view buys UFC 206 could possibly make has likely reduced, and this also affects fighters like Cormier who make profit from pay-per-view revenue.

"Financially is a ton because I know what Anthony [Johnson] and I did at UFC 187, numbers wise, and we made some money, but not what we would make if Georges St-Pierre fought,” Cormier explained on Fight Network. “So for me it's tough, you know. I'm like, 'I hope that they get this figured out so that the fight can be as big as UFC 200’.

Cormier’s title defense at UFC 206 sits between UFC 205, where featherweight champ Conor McGregor challenges lightweight champ Eddie Alvarez, and UFC 207, which is marked as the return of former bantamweight queen Ronda Rousey. Although, Cormier’s fight is an intriguing and important bout, it’s hard to deny that it will be overshadowed by these two mega events.

“I fought on [UFC] 200, so I know what a big pay-per-view looks like in term of revenue, pay-per-view revenue,” Cormier said. “So I'm hoping that it gets worked out because [UFC] 205 is going to be massive, [UFC] 207 is going to be massive, with Georges St-Pierre in the middle the UFC can have three big shows back-to-back at the end of the year. I don’t know if we have done that in a really long time.

“I just don't want to be at UFC 206 and kind of just get lost in the middle of [UFC] 205 and [UFC] 207, and then people are like, ‘You know what, I'm going to save my money for the Ronda [Rousey] fight’. It kind of happened at UFC 198 and [UFC] 199 where those guys struggled a little bit because people were like, ‘I'm going to [wait] to get 200, and I'm going to spend my money there’. I hope it gets worked out because financially it's a big difference."