Daniel Cormier, a UFC Hall of Fame inductee and longtime mainstay on broadcasts of UFC flagship events, has seen and heard just about everything there is to know about the sport, both pro and con. But recently, a boxing queen got under the skin of “DC” and the UFC roster.
Shakur Stevenson (25-0, 11 KOs), whose career highlights include championship victories in four weight classes, ruffled more than a few feathers, including Daniel Cormier’s, when he challenged current UFC lightweight champion Ilia Topuria (17-0 MMA, 9-0 UFC) to a match inside the squared circle.
“Tell him to come fight me,” Stevenson said. “I don’t care. Tell him to come fight me. The skill level is different.” [in boxing.] In his comments, Shakur Stevenson also said he didn’t believe former UFC heavyweight champion Jon Jones could make it as a boxer.
Daniel Cormier defends Joaquin Buckley’s position on the boxing debate
These comments from the undefeated Stevenson did not go down well with UFC welterweight Joaquin Buckley (21-7 MMA, 11-5 UFC), who defended the sport of MMA on social media earlier this week.
“Stop disrespecting us, buddy,” Buckley said. “We’re much nicer than all of you. If we came out, I’d kill you.”
In the last episode of The Daniel Cormier Show, Cormier addressed Joaquin Buckley’s comments to Shakur Stevenson at the top of the program.
“You know,” Shakur Stevenson said [that] the UFC could never box,” Daniel Cormier began. “Joaquin Buckley was right. For example, it doesn’t have to be boxing because the reality is that there are no big fights like in the past. I do [the UFC] to be the boxing of the 70s, 80s and 90s. If I were to try boxing, I would want to box from that time and era.
Daniel Cormier on the current state of boxing
When it comes to modern-day boxing, Cormier didn’t mince his words about the state of the sport.
“Boxing today is not necessarily what I would like to be and what it used to be,” he said, “because there just aren’t enough stars to put on big fights. There aren’t enough big events to take us back to the days when Ali fought, or when Tyson fought, or when you had the Four Kings and they all fought each other. I’m even talking about the days when Lennox Lewis was the heavyweight champion, even the Klitschko brothers! It was different then.”
“Those fights attracted more attention at the time and they felt bigger!”, Daniel Cormier continued. “I understand today that when Canelo [Alvarez] fighting Terence Crawford, it felt like a big event, but honestly, whenever I get super excited for these boxing fights, until you get young, exciting prospects who want to go out there and try to knock people out like the guys of the past, you get the fight we got where Terence Crawford, who once again showed why he’s the best, only controlled Canelo Alvarez, the biggest star of this generation, and it’s just not that fun, honestly.
Final Thoughts: Daniel Cormier is right on the money
Simply and succinctly, Daniel Cormier’s statements in response to Shakur Stevenson’s comments and Joaquin Buckley’s rebuttal are the most accurate. The state of boxing in 2026 is different than it was a few decades ago.
Gone are the days of USA Network airing Tuesday night fights most weeks, as well as the era of ABC’s broad sports world featuring edited television versions of major boxing fights a few weeks after they were shown live on premium cable. ABC was supposed to show an event in 2007, but the card never materialized.
Even Bob Arum’s Top Rank is no longer on traditional television, and has not been since July last year. Recent Top Rank shows have been streamed on the Top Rank Classics FAST (Free Ad-Supported Television) channel. Boxing can no longer survive on big names alone. The sport also needs to give flowers to rising prospects.
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