Issue 183

October 2019

It's Daniel Cormier's world and we just live in it. As the double champ celebrates his recent world MMA awards, he reflects on his journey to here and the next steps for a true MMA superhero.

Then UFC light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier breathed rarified air in July of 2018 when he moved back up to his natural weight class of heavyweight at UFC 226 and made quick work of then three-time defending champion Stipe Miocic. Cormier stopped Miocic with a vicious right hook followed by nasty ground and pound as the referee stepped in with mere seconds left in the first round. Cormier had climbed the highest mountain and captured the long-coveted UFC heavyweight crown to now go alongside his UFC light heavyweight equivalent. Cormier became only the second fighter in history to hold championships in two different divisions simultaneously. 

Cormier became a champ-champ of sorts again in July at the 11th Annual Fighters Only World MMA Awards when he was voted by fans worldwide as the Fighter of the Year as well as Analyst of the Year. As he continues to make room in his ever-growing trophy case, the champion took time to reflect on the unprecedented accomplishment and the amazing honor. 

“It was cool,” commented Cormier. “The fans vote on a lot of these awards. It is truly amazing that they recognize the year I had. I hadn't fought since November so, for the fans to still hold me in such high regard when other phenomenal fighters like Henry (Cejudo), Amanda (Nunes) and Israel (Adesanya) had fought twice since and also captured championships, goes to show you the type of respect they had for the work I put in last year. It was very, very good to win those.”

An iconic event, long touted as the Oscars of mixed martial arts, the World MMA Awards have always been a can’t-miss event for the elite of the sport. The event, honoring the best and brightest the sport has to offer, has always lived up to and often exceeded the expectations of the double champ. 

“It’s awesome,” Cormier said. “As a sport, we need an awards show like the World MMA Awards. We can all come together and celebrate the year in mixed martial arts. It’s the biggest awards show we have and it continues to grow. It’s so special to watch the entire place full to the brim with MMA stars and their partners and everybody dressed to the nines. It was amazing to see. Unfortunately, I couldn’t make it this year as I was right in the middle of my training camp, so that makes it tough.”

In the past calendar year, ‘DC’ rose to the challenge like no other champion in the history of the sport. He competed in three title fights, securing three definitive finishes in two different weight classes. He stands as the only MMA fighter ever to defend world titles in two different weight classes in the same calendar year. In the ultra-competitive, human chess match that is combat sports, coupled with the nearly superhuman grind it takes to succeed at the highest level, it sometimes leaves no time for admiration and adulation of fellow athletes, let alone one’s own accomplishments. It took Cormier some time to step back and admire his own work. 

“I wasn't necessarily paying attention to it until after the Derrick Lewis fight.” Cormier recalled. “Then it was like 'Whoa. This is something different. Everybody was saying that nobody has ever won like this before. Nobody has ever had a title in two divisions and defended both in the same calendar year, which is crazy. People kept telling me that they don't think I truly understood what I was accomplishing at the moment. Obviously, I understood it after the fight but now I am fully aware of what a fantastic year it was because people are still honoring that year. It’s crazy.”

The adulation that is so evident now, on the heels of an amazing year inside and outside of the cage, with so many honors and awards, wasn’t always so visible. When the champion was in the face of his biggest rival and toughest professional test and could have used it most, the support was lacking. Current UFC Light Heavyweight champion

Jon Jones is an enigma like we have never seen before. An uber-talented, once-in-a-generation fighter, but his talents are met equally by the personal demons that continue to haunt him. The two great champions are polar opposites and have mixed like oil and water in each other’s presence from day one. 

For Cormier, a man who does everything by the book, to be jeered by fans as his heated rival is cheered at every misstep and wrong turn, would make him, and any sane person, scratch their head. The former Olympian pinpoints a turning point in his relationship with a certain segment of the fan base. It was as simple as a deeper connection on a human level. 

“I think that sometimes we gain more than we could ever expect in losing.” Cormier mused. “It was after the second Jones fight when he beat me again and he tested positive again. For all of our interactions, there has always been something like that, where he tested positive or something. It made people go ‘Wow. He saw this man cry in the Octagon because he wanted it so bad. The guy that has taken it, that beat him, the guy who has been the roadblock to him having the ultimate glory has been short-changing him every time.' I felt that when I got to Boston after I fought Jones. People were way more supportive and it has continued like that. It’s really good to experience that now.”

“When you start to try to think for other people, you are running head first into a brick wall.” Cormier continued. “I did initially. At a point, I told people what to think. Hey you guys are cheering this guy when all he has done is wrong. But by telling people what they are supposed to feel, it just made them go "Oh, you are holier than thou? You’re high and mighty? Who are you to judge?' Then I just didn't care. You guys do whatever you want. It doesn't affect me, honestly. You guys do what you want. If this is the guy you want to support then support him. Who am I to choose where you go and where your energies go? When I showed people I don't care that's when they started to care. It’s a weird dynamic.”

To the future Hall of Famer, it was mind over matter when dealing with certain fans during that window of time. If he didn’t pay them any mind, they didn’t matter. Like most successful individuals in any walk of life, he is a master of compartmentalization. The Louisiana native wanted to focus on what he could control. He chose to let his fists and feet do the talking and believed that everything else would eventually take care of itself. 

“It was odd because people were supportive.” Cormier continued. “When I do the open workouts and all the other stuff, people were very supportive. It was only on those times where there was a big group of people where it felt like there was less support. In reality, I didn't put too much thought into how great it felt because I had already turned it off. I already turned off the thought of trying to gain acceptance. I was just going to do my thing and hopefully, people will enjoy it in the end. Even those times I got booed going to the Octagon, a lot of times people respected my approach to the fight. By the end of a lot of those fights where I got booed on the way in they were cheering me on the way out. You just earn their respect through your effort and I think I have done that.”

It takes a near maniacal level of dedication and embracing of the grind to reach the top level of the sport. To have the staying power to keep the biggest and baddest men on the planet at bay and away from your crown is an entirely different level of dedication. To also juggle a second career as an award-winning analyst while being an active coach with a young family is nearly unimaginable. For Cormier, the foundation and base of that motivation can be found right there at home. 

“It's tough but it’s what I want to do.” Cormier said. “I love my family. I love providing for my family and I love providing for them even when I'm not fighting. Also, it gives me a chance to have the coolest job in the world. I get to go to the fights and sit and talk with my friends. Me and Dominick Cruz, Joe Rogan, Jon Anik and Paul Felder, we are all friends. We are all buddies. We get to go watch fights and call them with our friends. All of the producers are all our buddies, too. I am a really, really lucky man to not only have the jobs I have but also have the family, my wife and my kids all healthy.”

“I want to make my family proud but at the end of the day, it’s just a competitiveness that I have and that I have always had.” Cormier reasoned. “It just hasn't gone anywhere. The day that it starts to falter is when I know I shouldn’t be doing anything competitively. That level of wanting to accomplish this, this and the other has allowed me to go to such great heights. It’s easy to live for your family and want to do special things for them but you have to want it for yourself. I tell that to my kid wrestlers – You aren't wrestling for your father. Wrestle for you first and it will all take care of itself. I take a similar approach but I do a little bit more for my family.”

There is an old expression that states behind every great man is a great woman. Many great men might argue that beside every great man there is a great woman. No man becomes great in a vacuum. Somewhere there is the helping hand of a woman found within that success. Daniel Ryan Cormier would be the first to echo that sentiment. Salina, his wife and the mother of his children, is the glue that holds the Cormier household together. With Cormier’s demanding schedule there is a lot put on Mrs Cormier’s plate on a daily basis. She has been in the champ’s corner from day one, through the lowest moments and now as the family enjoys the highs of this crazy rollercoaster ride. 

“Salina has made my life go forward.” Cormier said. “She takes care of everything, everything. She manages my household and my kids. She is there to support me through the ups and the downs. She has been everything to me. I was talking to my strength coach just this morning about when we were living in our little apartment back in San Jose. She would always make food, we would just manage at the time. Now we are doing way better. She has been there since fight number one. When I met that woman I told her I was a fighter. I was 1-0 at the time. Oh, you are one of those guys. She didn't care at all that I was a fighter. She cared about the fact that I was a guy who gained her interest or hung around long enough to break down that wall. I don't know how the hell I got her but I did. Now we have built this beautiful life together. She is the one that makes everything work. I get a lot of help, man. If not for home being intact and my family being happy and healthy I could not do anything on the outside.”

Cormier also has a very special group of men and women that he considers family at the American Kickboxing Academy in San Jose, California. AKA is a team of what can only be described as some of the greatest fighters to ever grace the Octagon. AKA has housed current UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov, former UFC heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez and former UFC middleweight champion Luke Rockhold among others. Over the years, there has been an unbreakable bond built on blood, sweat and tears between Cormier, Velasquez and Rockhold. 

“Every step of the way, those guys (Cain and Luke) have been there.” Cormier said. “Without them I wouldn't be who I am today. The group of us three trained so hard and on the same wavelength that we just needed guidance. That's what our coaches provided us. With guidance with guys that are so motivated we were able to do really, really special things.” 

At an age when an athlete in any sport is looking more toward retirement than rematches, DC, in true DC fashion, is still taking challenges as they come. The man wakes up every morning, dons his hard hat, grabs his lunch pail and heads to work. 

He continues with his nose to the grindstone and simply puts one foot in front of the other as he walks toward the UFC Hall of Fame as his exemplary career comes closer to the finish line. 

They say it’s easy to get comfortable when you sleep on satin sheets. Cormier will have none of that as he continues to work day in and day out as if he’s still that young, hungry up-and-comer. 

“At 40, it’s just about taking it day by day, moment by moment.” Cormier said. “Whether it’s fighting or sports commentary, it’s all about taking it day by day. I'm not trying to look forward to anything right now.”

There tends to be an uneven and unbalanced focus and attention put on Cormier’s few career losses. Unfortunately for DC, said losses came on the biggest stages and under the brightest of lights. But make no mistake, Daniel Cormier is a winner, plain and simple. The man has won a world championship in every organization in which he has competed during his illustrious career. For a fighter who, by his own admission, has accomplished everything he dreamed and more, for a man who is beyond any shadow of a doubt on the Mount Rushmore of MMA, Daniel Cormier sees his legacy in combat sports as a secure one.

“It’s hard to put into words.” Cormier said. “Every time I think about it I just think about how lucky I am. It’s taken a lot of hard work and a lot of commitment from a lot of people to make everything that's happened, happen. Success and greatness are not a mistake. All of that’s earned. It's not given. Nobody goes 'Hey Daniel, you are a great guy. We want you to have this and this.' That's not how it works. You are given opportunities and you have to cash in. I have been lucky enough to cash in.

“I think when you talk about me and my career, I say I'm on the short list of greatest fighters of all time.” Cormier continues. “If that's the case, you would have to say in the (heavyweight) division I have never lost in, that I should be for sure. I think people recognize it now more than ever but I think it’s time for people to truly understand who I am and what I have been to this sport.”