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UFC champ Daniel Cormier targets winner of Anthony Johnson vs. Glover Teixeira if Jones isn’t available

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LAS VEGAS – UFC light heavyweight Daniel Cormier might have taken a few boos en route to his win over short-notice foil Anderson Silva, but he is no longer concerned about public perception.

“I can’t really pay attention to that any more,” he said following his decision over the ex-middleweight champ on the pay-per-view main card of UFC 200 at Las Vegas’ T-Mobile Arena. “The first time it happened, I got angry. I tried to explain it, and it just didn’t make any sense. Now, I can’t really try and dictate people’s emotions. I can only take care of what I can take care of.”

Cormier (17-1 MMA, 5-1 UFC), the No. 2 ranked fighter in the USA TODAY Sports/MMAjunkie MMA light heavyweight rankings, was booed at the announcement of his grudge rematch with No. 1 Jon Jones (22-1 MMA, 16-1 UFC), who wound up getting scratched from UFC 200 at the last minute when an out-of-competition drug test came back positive for banned substances. Fans didn’t much like Cormier’s game plan for his fight with Silva (33-7 MMA, 16-3 UFC), which centered on controlling the Brazilian on the mat. But the champ felt perfectly justified taking the approach given all the drama surrounding his fight.

“People don’t understand the situation that I’ve been in over the course of this last week, so for me to go out there and get a victory over someone like Anderson Silva, that’s enough for me,” he said.

Cormier said the stress of the situation caused his body to stop losing weight at the exact time he needed to shed pounds. He made the cutoff for the non-title fight with Silva, and decided it was best to ensure victory on Saturday night.

“Right now, I feel relieved, because Anderson did this on two days’ notice,” Cormier said. “And he went out there and fought as hard as he could. So respect to him. But reality is, it would have been catastrophic if I had lost tonight, because I would still be the champion, but I would have lost to a guy who’s probably going down to middleweight to challenge for the belt. So I did what I needed to do.”

With the tumultuous week behind him, Cormier now looks ahead to his next step. While he said it’s important to see what happens with Jones, who is likely to appeal his test failure, he anticipated meeting the winner of an upcoming fight between onetime title challenger and No. 3 light heavyweight Anthony Johnson (21-5 MMA, 12-5 UFC) – whom he previously beat to win the belt after Jones was stripped in the wake of a hit-and-run accident – and No. 5 Glover Teixeira (25-4 MMA, 8-2 UFC) , who was routed two years ago by then-champ Jones.

“I’m not going to wait for him for two years,” said Cormier, addressing the possibility Jones could be sidelined that length of time as a first-time PED offender. “I’m 37. But I think I’ll probably fight the winner of ‘Rumble’ and Glover Teixeira. It just seems like it makes the most sense.

“Those guys are well-deserving; they’ve won fights in a row, and both of them deserve title shots. I think we need to see what happens with Jon, let him get through that, and then see what’s going to happen. Because with all that’s going on, the focus can’t be fighting right now. It has to be figuring this out.”

Cormier never paused when presented the choice to move forward or withdraw from the card in the wake of the Jones drama. He praised Silva for doing the same. But he was unapologetic for those who might criticize his performance.

For complete coverage of UFC 200, check out the UFC Events section of the site.

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