Daniel
Cormier is an athletic specimen.
A former Olympic wrestler, Cormier, joined the
American Kickboxing Academy in 2009 to start training MMA.
Luke
Rockhold was already an accomplished fighter at AKA by then.
Rockhold recalls that Cormier could do backflips while weighing
around 260 pounds and standing 5’10” tall. According to Rockhold,
Cormier’s wrestling skills at heavyweight allowed him to reach the
pinnacle of the sport.
A Certain Confidence
“‘DC’ was a freak man,” Rockhold said on „the Jaxxon Podcast.”. “‘DC’ walked into the
gym 260 pounds, 5’10”, and he could do a backflip. This big fat
motherf—-er’s doing backflips. He had a certain confidence and
athleticism… Being able to have that wrestling at heavyweight, he
could dictate a lot of what’s going on. He always was just very
athletic, he had some wrestling and he could throw some
hands.”
Cormier was already 30 when he had his first MMA fight. “DC” joined
the
UFC in 2013 and went on to become a two-division champion in
the promotion, leaving behind the likes of Anderson
Silva, Dan
Henderson, Anthony
Johnson, Frank Mir and
Alexander
Gustafsson in his wake. Cormier’s only career losses came
against Jon Jones,
considered the greatest fighter of all time, and Stipe
Miocic, considered the greatest heavyweight of all time.
Cormier hung up his gloves in 2020 following consecutive loss
against Miocic. Cormier has since taken up coaching when he is not
on commentary duty for the UFC.