Daniel Cormier believes Sergei Pavlovich should be the backup fighter for Jon Jones vs. Stipe Miocic.

Jones is expected to defend his UFC heavyweight title against Miocic later this year with a possibility being November in New York's Madison Square Garden.

Pavlovich, meanwhile, is coming off a first-round TKO win over Curtis Blaydes at UFC Vegas 71 this past weekend. It made it six first-round finishes in a row for the Russian who is all but guaranteed the next crack at the title.

Speaking about the possibility of fighting the Jones-Miocic winner, Pavlovich said he would wait for the time being. But with that said, Cormier believes Pavlovich should go a step further and weigh in as the backup fighter — something he happened to do for Jones' UFC 285 fight with Ciryl Gane.

“I weigh in, and I sit there as an alternate,” Cormier said on his ESPN show (via MMA Junkie). “I don’t know if I fight again, because against Ciryl Gane, nobody knew it, but he was the alternate. So he sat there, made the weight, and then when Jon and Ciryl fought, he was just out.

“But he got paid some money. You don’t wanna risk letting your money dry up. You still get paid along the journey while you still may get an opportunity to fight the champion.”

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Cormier also believes there's an advantage for Pavlovich in that he would only need to train for one fighter.

“Here’s the thing about those backup fighters,” Cormier explained. “In most cases, especially at heavyweight, if he’s scheduled to fight as a backup, and Stipe and Jon are fighting, if Jones falls out, the fight will be off. If Miocic falls out then they will just slide him in, so he’s not gonna fight Stipe for the belt.

“He would fight Jones for the belt, so he could prepare as if he’s getting ready to fight Jon Jones and have himself ready to fight him in case he gets the call.”