Daniel “DC” Cormier had the kind of career that most athletes can only dream about. A champ in two weight divisions, virtually a shoo-in for the UFC hall of fame, and a legendary rivalry against Jon Jones made “DC” a legend in the game. Despite this, “DC” regrets how he finished things, revealing that he wanted to retire earlier than he did in a recent interview with The MMA Hour.
“I can’t train to fight the way I want to fight. Me fighting Stipe Miocic after my back surgery, those two times, that wasn’t the same fight. I couldn’t wrestle! I should’ve stopped in ‘18. I should’ve stopped in ‘18. I should have retired after Derrick Lewis. Especially when I had back surgery.
DC Reveals Massive Career Regret
I was so severely limited it was crazy. My wrestling workouts, I went from wrestling 30, 40 minutes rounds and matches to doing ropes and jump-roping and doing wrestling movements without the physical contact of the wrestling. It was crazy. I couldn’t wrestle like I wanted to.
I had surgery in December after Derrick Lewis. I blew my back out the morning of the fight. I should have just said, ‘I thank God, and I’m out.’ I got this extra money, I’m still the champ — I don’t think they’d even taken the light heavyweight belt from me yet, because Jones and [Alexander Gustafsson] fought at the end of the year. I could have been done, but I just didn’t.”
Cormier continued, lamenting his performance against Stipe Miocic. “I don’t know if I almost won, honestly.
I was winning the first round, then the second round I was winning but then he dropped me. Then the third round he dropped me and I’m having to take a round off to recover. Third round I got poked. Fourth round I won the round, and then the fifth round he just kept clinching me. He won the fight, and I’m not one of those guys who is going to sit here and lie.
Dude won the fight. But, dude wouldn’t have — I don’t think he ever would have beaten me when I was younger and I was doing everything. I was just a better fighter.”
DC’s final fight was at the height of the pandemic, with no crowd present. He bowed out of the Octagon in near-total silence at the UFC Apex.
“That was crazy. It was right in the middle of the pandemic, with no one there. And that was the problem, nobody could be there. My family, nobody was there. Nobody got to go. They let [my assistant] Cassandra and [my coach] Rudy in… It was just them sitting in the middle of the Apex and nobody else, and that was them doing a thing for me because of what I had done for the company.”
Should DC have bowed out earlier? Let us know in the comments.
