“It’s the biggest fight in the sport outside of Conor McGregor and he fights at 155 pounds, so I’m gonna fight Brock. Brock is a big bad tough boy, former UFC Champ and obviously he’s the WWE Champion [Universal Champion]. He’s a massive guy with a lot of fighting ability and I’ve known Brock for a long time and I’m excited to compete against him and really not compete against him – I want to put it on him. When you beat a guy like Brock Lesnar, if I beat the most dominant heavyweight champ of all time and couple that with a fight over Brock, they may call me one of the greatest heavyweights of all time.”
“Stone Cold” Steve Austin asked Cormier about the stare down between he and Lesnar after Cormier’s UFC 226 win over Miocic.
Cormier responded,
“After the fight I was like, ‘Hey get in here. You here for a fight, we’ll give you a fight.’ I was very aware he was there and if he was there, he was looking for a fight and I wanted to give it to him. I just didn’t remember how big he is until he walked into the octagon.”
Austin then asked whether Lesnar’s shoved surprised Cormier,
“Steve, it surprised me so much because – look, like I said – I’ve known Brock a long time. I’ve known of him and been a fan and we wrestled together when we were in college, so I’ve known Brock Lesnar. He was coming into the octagon and I thought to myself, ‘We’re going to go chest to chest and if this fight is gonna happen, they will have a great visual.’ There’s gonna be a great visual. Big old Brock Lesnar in the octagon with me and will go chest to chest and we’ll jaw each other for a bit and we’ll see what happens. Well, Brock wasn’t having that. He pushed me. He came in hot too and that’s the thing I should have recognized. I should have recognized he was coming in as fast as he was and then he pushed me. If I knew that he was gonna push me, I would have kinda dug my feet into the ground so I didn’t go flailing like that. I hate that it seems like he threw me so far across the octagon.”
Cormier then revealed what Lesnar said to him during the incident,
“Then He even said to me, ‘Do you feel that?’ Of course you feel strong. I wasn’t f*cking ready for you to push me.”
Readers interested in hearing Austin’s interview with Cormier in its entirety may do so HERE.