5 things you might not know about Daniel Cormier

Since moving to the UFC from StrikeForce in 2013, Daniel Cormier has become one of the most successful and popular fighters in the world’s biggest MMA promotion. He’s captured the UFC Light-Heavyweight title on two occasions and currently holds the Heavyweight title too, making him just the second fighter to hold two UFC titles in different weight classes at the same time.

Cormier is also one of the most recognisable personalities on the roster as he regularly appears on shows like UFC Tonight and quite often co-commentates on shows that he isn’t fighting on – sometimes coming out with famous soundbites as he did for Rose Namajunas’ upset win over Joanna Jedrzejczyk.

But despite being one of the most charismatic fighters out there, there are still plenty of fascinating facts that many fans might not know about him. Here are 5 things you might not know about Daniel Cormier.

#1 He was key to Cain Velasquez’s training camp for the Brock Lesnar fight

Cormier helped Cain Velasquez train for his fight against Brock Lesnar in 2010

Back in 2010 when Cain Velasquez signed to challenge Brock Lesnar for the UFC Heavyweight title, many observers were worried for Velasquez as it was felt that Lesnar would have a strong wrestling advantage over him given the NCAA Division I title that he won in 2000. Cain though wasn’t at all bothered, and part of that was because he was training with a guy called Daniel Cormier.

In the MMA world at least, relatively few people had heard of Cormier – he was just 5-0 at the time of the Velasquez/Lesnar fight and had only just debuted in StrikeForce, and to look at the guy, he hardly resembled a wrestler as intimidating as the hulking Lesnar. But Cormier’s chubby look clearly belied his skill and come the fight, he’d helped to hone Velasquez’s game perfectly.

Cain destroyed Lesnar in the first round to take the title away from him – size difference be damned – and while the win confirmed Velasquez as the world’s best Heavyweight, it also got people talking about Cormier more than ever before.

It’d still be another year before we’d see him on a proper StrikeForce main card, but big things were expected right from the moment Lesnar was dethroned – making it ironic that DC’s next big challenge could come in the form of ‘The Beast Incarnate’.

#2 There’s a reason he always avoided cutting to 205lbs

Cormier now comfortably makes 205lbs - but weight cutting hasn't always been easy for him

Even as far back as his StrikeForce run, many fans simply couldn’t figure out why Cormier was choosing to fight at Heavyweight. He looked massively undersized there and hardly cut the figure of a svelte athlete, instead sporting a sizeable gut. It wasn’t that he was out of shape per say, but it was certainly clear that he had the frame to make 205lbs comfortably.

There was a major reason for ‘DC’ deciding to stay at Heavyweight, though. Cormier’s background as an Olympic wrestler is often mentioned when analysts talk about his strengths – but few people are aware that in reality, his Olympic experience was actually a nightmare for him.

Athens 2004 went pretty well, admittedly – he took 4th place in the 96kg freestyle tournament, narrowly missing out on a medal, but if he expected to go a step further at Beijing 2008 he was sorely mistaken.

Cormier was named as team captain of the USA wrestling team that year but ended up being pulled from the competition due to kidney failure brought on by excessive weight cutting. According to a 2014 interview with Cormier, he felt like he was about to die during the cutting process – making it far more understandable why he chose to avoid weight cutting during his MMA career.

Of course, in 2014 he decided to make the plunge and moved to 205lbs for the first time in his career – and thankfully he’s had no dangerous occurrences around his weight cutting since, choosing to make the lower weight largely by dieting rather than stripping water weight.

#3 He was a pro-wrestler, but not in the way that you might think

Cormier competed in the short-lived RPW promotion in 2004

Everyone knows Cormier is a massive fan of professional wrestling and his mic work – both his post-fight promos and his commentating – are heavily influenced by the wild antics of WWE. But most fans might not actually realise that he once moonlighted as a pro-wrestler – but not in the WWE-ish way that would’ve seen him compete in tag teams or hit an opponent with a steel chair.

Instead, Cormier competed in the competition known as Real Pro Wrestling – a league put together in 2002 essentially to provide amateur wrestlers from the Olympic or Collegiate level with an option to actually be paid to wrestle – hence the term ‘pro wrestling’ but without the connection to the scripted version of that sport.

RPW used a hybrid of rules combining freestyle, folkstyle, Greco-Roman and even sumo wrestling, and wrestlers taking part represented one of 8 teams named colourfully – teams included Minnesota Freeze and New York Outrage.

Unfortunately, RPW only lasted two seasons – 2004 and 2007 – before folding, but a handful of notable names from the world of MMA competed in the league while it was active. One of those names? Daniel Cormier, of course. He won the 96kg weight division in the inaugural 2004 season representing Oklahoma Slam – alongside fellow future MMA star Muhammed Lawal.

As he’s since gone into MMA full time, his RPW stint will probably be the closest Cormier will come to being involved in pro-wrestling – unless a WWE deal is on the table after he retires, of course!

#4 He wasn’t supposed to be in the StrikeForce Heavyweight Grand Prix – but he won it anyway

Cormier's first major win came over Antonio Silva in 2011

When Scott Coker announced the launch of a StrikeForce Heavyweight Grand Prix in early 2011, it sounded like a fight fan’s dream – the kind of tournament that PRIDE would’ve put on in its heyday, with the biggest names from outside the UFC all entering.

The eight-man tournament was supposed to consist of Fedor Emelianenko, Antonio Silva, Andrei Arlovski, Sergei Kharitonov, Josh Barnett, Brett Rogers, Fabricio Werdum, and then-StrikeForce Heavyweight champion Alistair Overeem. Those names alone had fans salivating – so much so that the “alternate” bout between Cormier and Jeff Monson went largely ignored.

As it turned out though, it was far more important than anyone could’ve imagined. Cormier comfortably outpointed Monson on the same show that saw Overeem defeat Werdum – but soon after, a contract dispute removed the Dutchman from the tournament and suddenly, Cormier was pegged to take his place.

Matched in the semi-finals against Silva – AKA ‘Bigfoot’, who had beaten Fedor and stood as the biggest man in the competition – few expected Cormier to come out on top, largely due to the massive size difference he was giving up. But ‘DC’ shocked everyone by knocking Silva out in the first round, truly arriving as an elite Heavyweight.

And although the final match against Josh Barnett took place eight months later – when most of the lustre of the Grand Prix was lost – Cormier still managed to win despite giving up a lot of size again. This time he basically threw Barnett around like a rag doll en route to a unanimous decision.

When the Grand Prix began, Overeem was the man StrikeForce’s backers were putting their promotional muscle behind – but when it ended they’d found a star from the most unlikely circumstances.

#5 He’s faced serious tragedy in his personal life

Cormier is well-known as a committed family man

It’s a well-known fact that Cormier is a family man at heart – he’s married to Salina Cormier and has two children with her – a son, Daniel Jr, and a daughter named Marquita. But that isn’t the full story.

Although ‘DC’ has referred to the incident a handful of times, not all of his fans realise that over a decade ago, he faced a serious tragedy in his personal life – the death of his then-three-month-old daughter Kaedyn in an automobile accident.

Cormier was just 24 years old at the time and the tragedy put a massive strain on him – he even missed the US wrestling team trials for the 2004 Olympics, although he was eventually granted a wrestle-off with fellow competitor Dean Morrison in order to make the team.

Ever since then, Cormier has stated that everything he does in his career and personal life is for Kaedyn – who would be 15 today – and that he sees her as his “guiding force”. Perhaps that’s why ‘DC’ is now renowned as being a fighter who never gives up during even the toughest fights – witness his battles with the likes of Alexander Gustafsson and Anthony Johnson – as whatever happens to him in the cage, nothing can test him quite like the events of June 2003.