Daniel Cormier admits he’s not got long left in the sport of mixed martial arts as an active competitor but says before he officially retires, he’ll meet Stipe Miocic in the a rubber match for the heavyweight title.

The two both own impressive wins over each other, with Miocic most recently finishing Cormier in the fourth round of their August contest. Prior to that fight, Cormier admitted he was considering retirement regardless of the outcome, but when he walked out of the Octagon defeated, he felt he owed it to himself to try and beat Miocic one last time.

The only problem, he says, is carving out a place in the UFC’s schedule for it all.

“There’s no time for us to fight until maybe June,” Cormier said, speaking with MMAJunkie. “The way the UFC quarterly schedule is looking, the UFC essentially, with them announcing Tony [Ferguson] and Khabib [Nurmagomedov] for April, there’s really no time. We’re going to be waiting a little bit.”

With that in mind, Cormier has an interesting conundrum. At 40 years old, he’s already warring with the clock to keep his skills at their peak, and with a long stint of inactivity, Miocic could find himself an edge in their rubber match.

Not that Cormier is doing much but finding the silver lining.

“It’s tricky,” Cormier said. “I would like it to happen sooner than later, that’s all I would like to say. I feel like the more time I get away from last year’s back surgery, the better I feel, and I’m starting to really feel like myself now. The further I get away from this surgery, the better I’ll be. They told me when I did it, after about a year is when it would really start to feel everything was back in order and I’m starting to feel that now.

“I’m ready to go, but he’s the champ. He’s the champ, he makes the rules. So I’m on standby and I’m waiting to see when this guy says that we’re going to fight. When he does, I’ll be prepared. I’ll be ready – even more prepared than the last time because I feel I can prepare better from the very start right now.”