Daniel "DC" Cormier is a former UFC Light Heavyweight and Heavyweight Champion with a professional MMA record of 22-wins, 3-losses, and 1-no contest. He retired from MMA in 2020 and currently works as a UFC commentator.
Cormier started wrestling in high school, where he won the Lousiana state championships and amassed an amateur record of 101-9 by the time he graduated high school. During his college days, Cormier won the junior college national championship twice and went 61-0. He then went to Division 1 and went 53-10.
After college, Daniel continued freestyle ranking and won the US National champion from 2003-2008 and got 4th place at the 2004 Olympics. he then won a gold medal in 2005 at the Golden Grand-Prix Ivanyarygin.
After pulling out of the 2008 Olympics, Cormier started training in MMA and debuted in 2009 at Strikeforce - Challengers 3 against Gary Frazier. Daniel won the fight in the third round via TKO(punches) and then defeated John Devine at Strikeforce - Challengers 7.
Daniel then fought Lucas Browne at XMMA 2 for the XMMA Heavyweight Championship. He defeated Lucas in the first round via punches to become the champion. Cormier fought Tony Johnson in his next fight for the KOTC Heavyweight Championship at KOTC: Imminent Danger. He then won his next 3-fights before fighting Jeff Monson for the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix reserve bout. Daniel won the fight and then fought Antonio Silva. He defeated Silva and fought Josh Barnett in the Grand Prix final. He was the underdog against Barnett and dominated him to win the fight via unanimous decision and won the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix Tournament.
Cormier then fought Dion Staring and defeated him via second-round TKO (punches) at Strikeforce: Marquardt vs. Saffiedine. This was Daniel's last fight in Strikeforce as he left the promotion to join the UFC in 2013.
Daniel Cormier made his UFC debut in 2013 at UFC on Fox: Henderson vs. Melendez against Frank Mir. Cormier defeated Mir via unanimous decision and then defeated Roy Nelson via unanimous decision at UFC 166. He then went to light heavyweight and defeated Patrick Cummins at UFC 170 and then defeated Dan Henderson at UFC 173. Following his dominant win, Daniel got a title shot at the UFC Light Heavyweight Championship against Jon Jones at UFC 182. Cormier fought hard but came up short against Jon Jones and lost the fight via unanimous decision.
Daniel Cormier again fought for the UFC Light Heavyweight Championship in his next bout against Anthony Johnson as Jon Jones was stripped of the title due to him facing felony charges. Daniel Cormier won the fight via submission (rear-naked choke) in the third round and became the new UFC Light Heavyweight Champion. Daniel then defended his belt against Alexander Gustafsson, Anderson Silva, and Anthony Johnson before fighting Jon Jones at UFC 214,
Daniel Cormier fought Jon Jones for a second time at UFC 214 to unify the UFC Light Heavyweight Championship. Just like the first encounter, Jones would get the better of Cormier as he would outstrike the champion by 95-60 in terms of significant strikes and win the first two rounds of the fight. The fight would end in the third round when Jon Jones would TKO Cormier and become a 2-time UFC Light Heavyweight Champion. The decision was overturned to a No Contest later because Jones would test positive for a turinabol metabolite and, Cormier got reinstated as champion.
Daniel Cormier fought Stipe Miocic for the UFC Heavyweight Championship at UFC 252. Cormier lost the first round on 2-judges scorecard due to him getting outworked by Miocic.
Miocic then knocked down Cormier in the second round to secure the round. Cormier was unable to stop Miocic in the third round as the champion continued his dominance and won the third round because of superior ground control time for close to 2-minutes. Cormier made a comeback and won round 4 as he landed nearly double the number of strikes despite Stipe having ground control. However, the champion bounced back in the fifth and outclassed Cormier in the round.
Miocic outworked and outclassed Cormier to win the bout via unanimous decision to retain the UFC Heavyweight Championship and win the trilogy against Daniel Cormier.
Daniel Cormier's last fight was against Stipe Miocic at UFC 252 for the UFC Heavyweight Championship. Cormier lost the fight via Unanimous Decision.
Below is the professional MMA record of Daniel Cormier:
