UFC light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier is changing his mind in regards to his next fight.

Recently, Cormier considered that potentially not fighting Volkan Oezdemir could be a reality, but now, he believes that he will fight the UFC prospect as expected early next year.

The UFC prospect was arrested on earlier this month as a result of a bar fight that took place on August 12th. South Florida Sun-Sentinel is reporting that he was in a fight with a man named Kevin Cohen, who sustained swelling and received cuts on his head from the fight.

The alleged incident went down at Capone in Fort Lauderdale and it was described by Oezdemir's attorney, Bruce A. Zimet that it was a bar room altercation. He made it clear that his client was not the aggressor and was totally justified in his actions. The report did not state what prompted the fight.

As a result of this incident, he was arrested by Fort Lauderdale police and charged with aggravated battery causing serious bodily injury, which is a second-degree felony. The Broward County Sheriff's Office set his bond at $10,000.

Oezdemir has been training in South Florida with Combat Club, and he made his UFC debut earlier this year when he decided to take a fight against Ovince Saint Preux at UFC Fight Night 104 in Houston on short-notice. As seen in the fight, upset the favored “OSP with a split decision.

Following that fight, he picked up a 28-second knockout win over Misha Cirkunov at UFC Fight Night 109 in Sweden then beat Jimi Manuwa with a bonus-winning knockout in just 42 seconds at UFC 214 in July. UFC light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier and Oezdemir were close to finalizing a title fight. The belief is that the title bout likely would have happened at the beginning of 2018, but Oezdemir's status is obviously up in the air as of this writing.

Cormier expects Oezdemir to be allowed to compete at UFC 220 in two months.

“I believe the fight still happens, because from my understanding, he was defending himself,” Cormier said on his podcast, Talk and Talker (transcript courtesy of Bloody Elbow). “And if these guys were doing anything, and it can be proven it was self-defense, you do have the right to defend yourself. So if he’s defending himself, the fight will still happen. Hopefully it happens as scheduled.”

“If it doesn’t, that’s a whole other can of worms. (But) I think he may be OK. If it was domestic, you’re f-cked. Anything domestic, it’s over. There’s no questions, there’s no no grey area. You f-cking hit a woman, you’re f-cking done. As it should be. So we’ll see.”