Daniel Cormier’s Rise To The Top
When the cage door closes for the UFC 182 main event this Saturday night (January 3, 2015) inside of the MGM Grand Garden Arena, it will be the biggest moment of Daniel Cormier’s lengthy competitive career. He’ll be standing across from the reigning UFC light heavyweight champion and pound-for-pound king Jon “Bones” Jones with the chance of a lifetime.
It definitely has not been an easy journey to prominence for “DC”. Although he was an NCAA All-American and Olympic wrestler, he failed to win both a national championship and an Olympic championship. Getting into mixed martial arts (MMA) gave Cormier another chance to seek greatness.
After surging to a successful start to his new career, Cormier made waves when he finished “Bigfoot” Silva and then beat Josh Barnett to win the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix Championship. “DC” continued his success when he made the jump to the UFC, taking out heavyweight mainstays Frank Mir and Roy Nelson before dropping down to light heavyweight.
Cormier is 2-0 at 205 pounds after starching Patrick Cummins back at UFC 170 and battering UFC veteran Dan Henderson at UFC 173. Now ready to take on Jones for the title, take a deeper look at Cormier’s rise to the top in the video below:
When it comes down to it, Cormier fights solely because he loves to compete. Growing up he had a rough childhood, and wrestling was his escape. A place he could get away from everything, work hard, and compete, “DC” wrestled his whole life.
When wrestling was over, Cormier wasn’t ready to stop competing. He found MMA and American Kickboxing Academy (AKA) and began his new career. Now a few years later, the former Olympian is fighting for a UFC championship, one he fully believes he can win. Watch Cormier elaborate on why he fights and his upcoming bout with Jones:
It’s clear that Cormier will undoubtedly be one of Jones’ biggest tests, if not his biggest, but we also know that “DC” has never faced anyone the caliber of the champion.
Will the AKA product be able to complete his triumphant rise to the top on January 3, 2015, or will “Bones” show us why he’s the best in the world yet again?
