Former UFC double champion Daniel Cormier reveals which fighter he thought about making a comeback against
Former two-division UFC Champion and future Hall of Famer Daniel Cormier retired from MMA in August, after his trilogy fight with current UFC Heavyweight Champion Stipe Miocic.
Throughout his career, he has had some memorable fights, especially his two encounters against Jon Jones and his epic bout with Alexander Gustafsson.
Daniel Cormier had often said that he would retire at the age of 40. "DC", however, missed this self-imposed deadline. He had to extend this deadline though, partly due to injuries and various other opportunities that presented themselves.
After the third Stipe fight, which "DC" would lose via decision, he pulled himself out of the UFC’s anti-doping program, which is typically the strongest indicator that an athlete is serious about hanging up the gloves for good.
But then in September, the former two-division champion heard his name called by Jan Blachowicz after he captured the vacant Light Heavyweight title in a fight against Dominick Reyes.
Speaking with MMAFighting.com, Cormier spoke about the call-out.
“I’ve got to be honest. When Jan Blachowicz was like ‘hey, you want to disrespect me, get off the couch, and come fight me.’ And I think to myself maybe I’ll go fight Jan Blachowicz, I’ll go fight him and get this done, and then I can walk away. That lasted about 15 minutes and then I completely understood that I was completely done.”
According to Cormier, the competitive fire that burned inside him while he was wrestling and then fighting will never truly be extinguished, but every athlete has to know when to walk away.
After making promises to his family, along with a huge number of new job opportunities presented to him following the end of his fighting career, Cormier opted to remain retired.
Outside of that small hiccup, Cormier is completely satisfied in retirement and it turns out his day-to-day life hasn’t changed all that much.
Daniel Cormier is a former two-division UFC Champion
Daniel Cormier started his MMA journey in the Heavyweight division, where he was undefeated in his first 13 fights. He then moved to Light Heavyweight and won the title, after defeating Anthony Johnson at UFC 187 while Jon Jones was suspended.
Daniel Cormier would defend the belt twice and even fought Anderson Silva, before moving back up to the heavyweight division.
Daniel Cormier would go on shock the MMA community by knocking out champion Stipe Miocic. DC would then defend his belt against Derrick Lewis, before completing his trilogy with Miocic.