Daniel Cormier lists Holly Holm vs. Ronda Rousey amongst other iconic fights in list of 5 biggest upsets in MMA history
Daniel Cormier has revealed what he feels are the top-five biggest upsets in MMA history. During a recent episode of ESPN MMA's DC & RC podcast, the former two-division champion named the five fights that, according to him, were the most shocking cases of underdogs beating overwhelming favorites in UFC history.
At No.5, Cormier ranked the women's bantamweight title fight between Ronda Rousey and Holly Holm at UFC 193 in 2015 when 'The Preacher's Daughter' shocked the world by knocking out 'Rowdy' in the second round. 'DC' pointed out that Rousey was arguably the biggest female star in the UFC at the time.
6 years ago: Holly Holm vs Ronda Rousey https://t.co/JbxlftTLmY
In all her previous fights, Rousey looked almost invincible. However, Daniel Cormier claimed that Holm was a fighter who exposed that, despite having been a dominant champion in the past, Rousey's skillset was shockingly limited:
"Ronda was an absolute global icon at that point, still today obviously in the WWE, she's still as big as she was in the UFC, so it shows you what type of appeal that Ronda Rousey brings. What we didn't know though at the time was that she was so limited in her skill set and Holly Holm really did show that there were levels to mixed martial arts..."
Watch the podcast below:
At No.4, Cormier named T.J. Dillashaw's emphatic fifth-round TKO win over Renan Barao at UFC 173 back in 2014. At the time, Barao was the bantamweight champion and had four title fight victories to his name (including interim title fights). He was also regarded as one of the best pound-for-pound fighters before losing to Dillashaw.
At No.3, Henry Cejudo's hard-earned decision win over Demetrious Johnson in their rematch at UFC 227. Johnson won the first meeting via TKO and Cejudo made the necessary adjustments to his game to emerge victorious in the rematch for the flyweight title.
At No.2, Julianna Pena's shocking second-round submission win over former two-division champion Amanda Nunes during their women's bantamweight title clash at UFC 269.
In a tie for first spot, Cormier chose Matt Serra's incredible TKO victory against the legendary Georges St-Pierre at UFC 69 and Chris Weidman's devastating knockout win over Anderson Silva at UFC 162.
Daniel Cormier explains why it makes sense to book Islam Makhachev vs. Charles Oliveira next
The only fight I want to see now!
Islam Makhachev Vs Charles Oliveira for the Vacant lightweight belt.
#UFC274 https://t.co/Rz7jr2krVl
Daniel Cormier believes it makes sense for Islam Makhachev and Charles Oliveira to fight for the vacant lightweight title next. Both Makahchev and Oliveira are on impressive winning streaks inside the octagon and are two of the best grapplers in the division.
Another reason to make that matchup, according to Daniel Cormier, is to try and lure Khabib Nurmagomedov out of retirement. While there's no guarantee 'The Eagle' will ever fight again, 'DC' feels that the undefeated Makhachev could step inside the octagon to defend his childhood friend's honor if he loses to Oliveira.
He said:
"It’s another way to try and draw him in because Dana has thrown so much money at Khabib to try and get him back and that hasn’t been enough. But what if, defending his friend’s honor is enough if Islam doesn’t get the job done? I just think there’s a lot of reasons to make this fight [between Charles Oliveira and Islam Makhachev]."