Cormier: Volkan Oezdemir is ‘JV’ version of ‘varsity’ Anthony Johnson

Daniel Cormier will face Volkan Oezdemir this weekend (Sat., Jan. 20, 2018) in the co-main event of UFC 220 inside TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts, in what will be his first title defense since losing the strap to Jon Jones back at UFC 214.

See how “DC” was re-gifted the 205-pound title here.

And while Cormier has always been very complimentary of “No Time” as an opponent and what he has been able to accomplish in his short stint thus far with the promotion, at the end of the day, he’s nothing but a junior varsity player trying to do what the best varsity player on his team couldn't.

Twice.

“There’s varsity and there’s JV. Have you ever heard of that?” Cormier said on a recent edition of The MMA Hour (via MMA Fighting). “Henri Hooft is a great guy. Greg Jones is a fantastic guy. I don’t know who the jiu-jitsu coach is down there, they’re all fantastic guys. They had a wrestle-off, Anthony (Johnson) whipped Volkan, so Volkan became a training partner. He went to get beat up,” he explained.

“They sent the A-Guy in there, he got whipped. They built him back up, he came back in there again and he got whipped. Now he’s gone. So now they’re going to bring the JV guy. What are you going to do, Volkan? What are you going to do different when you weren’t even the first choice?” asked Cormier.

“Volkan, you weren’t even the first choice to come out here and try to beat me. That’s like me telling (my training partner) Frank Munoz, ‘Hey bud, I can’t beat Jon Jones, I need you to go do this for me.’ Come on. Come on, Blackzilians. Come on.”

Still, “DC” does see Volkan having a great career down the road, it just won’t come at his expense in Boston. “He may go on to have a fantastic career,” Cormier added. “This weekend’s not his.”

And he will need more than his knockout power if he wants to do what only the aforementioned Jon Jones has been able to.