#2 Daniel Cormier
Trending
Daniel Cormier is an exception to the general rule of the fight game. In his case, the timeless theory about Father Time waiting for no one, seems to be disproven. He has been a wrestler all his life. An Olympian, at that.
He got into MMA fairly late in his life and reached the pinnacle of the sport, when he submitted Anthony Johnson, in a fight that he was almost knocked out in. ‘Rumble’ caught DC with a missile of a right hand and sent DC flying across the Octagon.
DC survived, outwrestled Johnson, and then, submitted him. DC won the title against Johnson, and then, successfully defended it against Swedish kickboxer, Alexander Gustaffson. This was yet another fight in which DC was rocked and almost finished.
But weathering the storm, he came back to beat the ‘Mauler’ on the judges’ scorecards. DC is, primarily, an excellent wrestler, with a technical boxing game. He also possesses a few decent roundhouse kicks, that he mainly uses to reach retreating opponents, looking to chop their legs down.
Now, it’s essential to note that DC’s iron chin, is further enhanced by his excellent grappling instincts. He has spent years and years, on the wrestling mats, drilling techniques with Olympic caliber wrestlers. That level of grappling gets ingrained into one’s mind and even after all these years, DC still, extensively, trains his wrestling alongside Cain Velasquez, Luke Rockhold, Khabib Nurmagomedov as well as other high level MMA grapplers.
DC has been hurt in several fights, right from his decision loss to Jones, to his decision victory over Anderson Silva. He is, in particular, vulnerable to body shots. However, he deserves all the credit in the world for his insane toughness.
He has proved that he has the ability to truck on and smash his opponents, even after being hurt to the body. The biggest examples of this are his fights against Frank Mir at Heavyweight and Silva at Light Heavyweight.
Mir hurt DC with a few good knees to the body, however, DC went on to control Mir and outpoint him. In the Silva fight, DC was winning on the scorecards, however, Silva caught DC with a liver kick in the waning moments of the fight. DC winced but that was it.
He stood his ground, initiated the clinch and survived.
That brings us to DC’s striking. Now, DC may not be a Semmy Schilt or a Rico Verhoeven, but for a lifelong grappler, DC has a pretty decent striking game. His understanding of defensive techniques, on the feet, is particularly, impressive.
He has a good understanding of timing and distance management. Inspite of, usually, being the smaller fighter in the cage, DC emerges as the victor, owing to his unbreakable will and insane work-ethic.
