“You don’t quit after you get beat. You pick yourself up, and you start rebuilding to accomplish your goals.”
― Daniel Cormier
“A lot of times, losing a fight is tough. In your darkest hours, I guess your true colors show.”
― Daniel Cormier
“It’s very difficult to make a 100% turnaround. It’s tough when you actually do exhibit patterns of bad behavior. You need to have a very strong support system of people who are willing to keep you in your place if you’re going to overcome these things.”
― Daniel Cormier
“I’m honored to be one of the guys that is seen as a leader of this great team – a team that has stood the test of time. AKA is one of the only teams that has been around since the beginning of the MMA explosion, and it’s a huge honor for me to be named captain.”
― Daniel Cormier
“You don’t get to the highest levels of the sport without having the basics in order.”
― Daniel Cormier
“If I would have won that Olympic gold medal, I would have gotten a job somewhere coaching at a university, and I would be totally content with my life.”
― Daniel Cormier
“I’m letting competition drive me, and when competition drives me, I don’t think anyone can compete with me.”
― Daniel Cormier
“Gustafsson is a stud, man. He’s a good fighter.”
― Daniel Cormier
“You can love me, you can hate me, but just don’t be indifferent. Care about it enough to watch.”
― Daniel Cormier
“There are ways to win fights, and sometimes you don’t always choose the easiest way to win a fight.”
― Daniel Cormier
“My little girl’s in Heaven. She’s my angel, and I can draw from that.”
― Daniel Cormier
“At the end of the day, I’m a man.”
― Daniel Cormier
“You have to be a champion in all facets of life.”
― Daniel Cormier
“My confidence comes from my fights and my training.”
― Daniel Cormier
“I want to be the best.”
― Daniel Cormier
“My confidence comes from knowing I do the right things in my life. I do the right things in the gym. I do the right things all together.”
― Daniel Cormier
“My confidence comes from me, not from Jon Jones. I can’t draw my confidence from another person.”
― Daniel Cormier
“I’m not a guy that really likes to pile onto somebody. Doesn’t really matter who it is.”
― Daniel Cormier
“I went through a training camp; I worked extremely hard. I prepared for UFC 200. This was the big one. This one meant everything to me.”
― Daniel Cormier
“I have to be smart. You cannot be going in there, trying to go forward and pressure guys, and be taking damage and getting hurt on the way to doing it.”
― Daniel Cormier
“I have definitely worked on that… being efficient and also being smarter with my pressure.”
― Daniel Cormier
“Being able to go forward has been good, you know? I’m lucky to have that ability, to pressure guys and make them falter and wilt.”
― Daniel Cormier
“As a champion and one of the best fighters in the world, guys should always step up to the plate and want to fight Jon Jones.”
― Daniel Cormier
“I was a fan of Jon Jones. I thought he was great.”
― Daniel Cormier
“I’m not on a slander campaign to ruin Jon Jones publicly. That’s not what I set out to do.”
― Daniel Cormier
“If you’re the UFC champion, you’re the best in the world at what you do, and I get the opportunity to do that.”
― Daniel Cormier
“I’ve always been a rough kid.”
― Daniel Cormier
“I was into basketball, but then once I found contact sports, it was over. I never played basketball again in my life.”
― Daniel Cormier
“I’m so bad at baseball, I can’t even hit now.”
― Daniel Cormier
“If you say John Smith is the greatest wrestler in Oklahoma history, now that’s big.”
― Daniel Cormier
“I went and worked at a TV station in Stillwater. I was actually account manager for commercial accounts, selling ad space and everything.”
― Daniel Cormier
“I need to be competing. Coaching is good, but I like to be in the fire.”
― Daniel Cormier
“I had a really dark time after the Olympic Games… But then I said to myself, ‘This is a sport that’s blessed me with a home, with an education, with some money. I can’t hate this sport. This sport took me out of Louisiana. This sport gave me a chance when so many people don’t get a chance. And I love this sport.’”
― Daniel Cormier
“If I didn’t have the wrestling name that I have, I wouldn’t have gotten the financial contract that I got with Strikeforce or the long-term contract or the television contract. That’s all because of wrestling.”
― Daniel Cormier
“I know what I’ve done, and I know who I am.”
― Daniel Cormier
“Ovince Saint Preux needs to know that not only me but every other guy at the American Kickboxing Academy are ready and open to open those doors in trying to help him accomplish his goals.”
― Daniel Cormier
“I don’t mind playing spoiler.”
― Daniel Cormier
“Wrestling is a hard sport, but it’s only a sport.”
― Daniel Cormier
“I’ve dealt with a lot in my life.”
― Daniel Cormier
“The only thing that can ever make a Louisiana boy feel better is Popeye’s.”
― Daniel Cormier
“If there’s an opportunity for me to compete at something, I’m there.”
― Daniel Cormier
“I grew up in Louisiana. We have red beans and rice, and there’s a Popeye’s on every corner.”
― Daniel Cormier
“Who I have fought and how I have fought, it says something about me.”
― Daniel Cormier
“When you look at my record at 10-0 as a professional and look at Jon Jones’ record when he was 10-0, who was his toughest guy? Stephan Bonnar, and he did not finish him. I have fought higher-caliber opponents at this stage in my career than Jon did in his at 9-1; His tenth fight was Matt Hammil.”
― Daniel Cormier
“I think Mickey Gall’s going to be really good.”
― Daniel Cormier
“I do believe, whenever this is all said and done, we won’t talk about Mickey Gall, the guy that beat CM Punk; we’ll just talk about Mickey Gall, the guy who is a top 10 fighter, a good welterweight or maybe a great welterweight.”
― Daniel Cormier
“I went out there, and I fought Anderson Silva, and you know what? I got a big W, and that’s massive for my career going forward.”
― Daniel Cormier
“How can you train if you’re constantly worried about getting injured?”
― Daniel Cormier
“Guys play basketball and get hurt, and that’s probably the easiest sport on the planet. We’re actually fighting every day. We’re wrestling; we’re grappling.”
― Daniel Cormier
“People always get confused. They talk about coaches. The reality is, these coaches and managers that everybody thinks are in so much control, they work for us. They’re our employees.”
― Daniel Cormier
“It’s unfair to think that we can do what we do with the intensity that we do it and expect injuries to not happen.”
― Daniel Cormier
“I think I’m as good if not better than everyone else.”
― Daniel Cormier
“I want to be regarded as the best guy in the world, and I want to beat the best guy in the world.”
― Daniel Cormier
“My resume, my career, and my legacy in this sport means more to me then collecting some checks.”
― Daniel Cormier
“Legacy does matter to me, and I want to leave a good one in MMA.”
― Daniel Cormier
“I’m not really worried about what Anthony Johnson does. I have to worry about what I do to prepare myself.”
― Daniel Cormier
“You don’t see many Jon Jones’s.”
― Daniel Cormier
“I usually fight a lot. 2015, I fought three times. I fought three of the best guys in the entire world.”
― Daniel Cormier
“I think that Amanda Nunes and Julianna Pena and Valentina Shevchenko… they’ve showed how much this level has gone up in female fighting in a very short period of time.”
― Daniel Cormier
“I love Mike Tyson. I was a fan, as everybody else was. The moment somebody stood up to him, he didn’t do so well. And that’s the same thing with Anthony Johnson. The guy’s a bully. He wants to intimidate you; he wants to dominate you. He wants to knock you out. But what happens when you don’t knock somebody out? What happens?”
― Daniel Cormier
“Fvery time Anthony and I are supposed to fight, the lines come out, and it’s like we’re dead even. It’s like people don’t know what to make of a fight between Daniel Cormier and Anthony Johnson, when in reality, it should be very easy to know what to make of a fight between me and Anthony Johnson.”
― Daniel Cormier
“It’s all matchups, and I knew that I matched up well against ‘Rumble’ Johnson.”
― Daniel Cormier
“I will tell you with 100 percent confidence, Jon Jones is not deep in my head. The fact he actually thinks that, it makes me smile every day.”
― Daniel Cormier
“I’m gonna live my life the correct way, and I’m gonna be a champion the kids look up to and hopefully aspire to be like.”
― Daniel Cormier
“I believe that I will represent this sport in the best light possible. I won’t mess it up. I won’t get myself in any trouble.”
― Daniel Cormier
“When I said I could beat Alexander Gustafsson in a standup fight, people laughed at me. They thought, ‘No way.’ But I believe in what I’m seeing every day.”
― Daniel Cormier
“It is my job to sell these fighters. I’m now a business partner of the UFC. What I do directly affects my paycheck. I try my best. I just don’t want people to be indifferent.”
― Daniel Cormier
“I don’t mind Ryan Bader thinking he deserves a title shot.”
― Daniel Cormier
“Throughout my entire life, I’ve always been a captain. I was the captain of my high school team. I was the captain at Oklahoma State University. I was the captain of the 2008 Olympic team.”
― Daniel Cormier
“I’ve done nothing but show up and fight, go to work inside the Octagon, outside the Octagon, and do things right. But people want to talk about me and discredit me.”
― Daniel Cormier
“I’ve done nothing wrong. Some people just don’t like me. Maybe I’m somebody that’s easy to dislike, but I don’t get it. Whatever. I’ll do what I do.”
― Daniel Cormier
“A lot of people want to discredit me.”
― Daniel Cormier
“Some people just don’t like you; you cannot satisfy everyone. But I’ve got a lot of supportive fans – people who do like me, do enjoy what I do.”
― Daniel Cormier
“If you value your wins and you value what you’ve done over the course of your career, then you wouldn’t want people harboring over a loss, even though you fought extremely well.”
― Daniel Cormier
“It’s like I cannot separate myself from Jon Jones.”
― Daniel Cormier
“Cain’s an animal, man. Cain’s a competitor. I want to spar with Cain because I know if I’m able to hang with him here in the gym, once I get out there in the cage and fight, I mean, I’ve already gone toe-to-toe with Cain Velasquez, you know?”
― Daniel Cormier
“People like to call themselves fans of fighting and fans of the sport, but if you’re a fan of fighting, how can you not like watching Demetrious Johnson? He’s the best at it. He’s the pound-for-pound best fighter in the world. Why wouldn’t you enjoy watching that guy perform? He does a phenomenal job every time he’s in there.”
― Daniel Cormier
“We’ve seen smaller guys in main event fights, and they do well. It just takes the right combination of people I think. I think Dominick Cruz v. T.J. Dillashaw could have main-evented a PPV and done pretty good.”
― Daniel Cormier
“You have to be very vocal about being willing to fight anyone.”
― Daniel Cormier
“Anthony Johnson hits harder than any other person, no doubt. Every time he hit me, it made me kind of, like, fly all over the place. He was trying to take my head off.”
― Daniel Cormier
“Dan Henderson, even when you’re close and he hits you from very, very close, you can feel how heavy his hands are. His hands are pretty powerful.”
― Daniel Cormier
“You’ve got to be all-in on this sport; you can’t be one foot out the door.”
― Daniel Cormier
“I think after I beat Ryan Bader, he should have to go get beat up by Anthony Johnson for being so disrespectful to Anthony Johnson.”
― Daniel Cormier
“My low center of gravity allows me to defend takedowns a lot better than most people. It’s very hard to get to my legs. It’s going to be really hard to take me down. There are a lot of positives to being my size.”
― Daniel Cormier
“I’m not stuck in Strikeforce. I’m happy to be with them. It’s where I started, and they’ve been great to me.”
― Daniel Cormier
“I’m confident in my team. I’m confident in my coaches. I’m confident in my ability. I worked really hard to become a better mixed martial artist.”
― Daniel Cormier
“Reach, and all that other stuff, doesn’t play as big a part in MMA as it does in boxing. Guys don’t really fight with their length all that much, because they have to worry about the takedown or kicks. They have to worry about so many other things that they can’t just fight real tall.”
― Daniel Cormier
“Jon Jones, grow up, bud. We’re going to fight regardless of how you feel. And when we do, and I’m cutting the line, and you might as well pull the guard because I’m taking you down.”
― Daniel Cormier
“When you start fighting, when your dream is to be the champion of the world, when you accomplish that, you don’t feel lost. It doesn’t hinder you. It only helps.”
― Daniel Cormier
“My training has always been really tough. I’ve always worked hard. I’ve always been very committed to my training and focused on my workout.”
― Daniel Cormier
“I’ve always had a chip on my shoulder. It kind of drives me. It’s something that allows me to train harder, train longer, work better.”
― Daniel Cormier
“Just being in the gym every day with someone with goals in common is special.”
― Daniel Cormier
“When I came into the gym, I wasn’t just some guy. I was a two-time Olympian.”
― Daniel Cormier
“Food doesn’t necessarily have to suck in order to be healthy. It doesn’t have to be terrible to be healthy anymore.”
― Daniel Cormier
“People in Toronto love to watch fights.”
― Daniel Cormier
“When I watch Rumble Johnson, he’s a bully. He bullies guys. He makes them go backward, and he traps them. I’m not going to allow that. If he tries to bully me, I’ll stand right in front of him, and if he hits me, I’ll hit him right back. And then we’ll see how the bully handles it when nobody is going to run away from him.”
― Daniel Cormier
“My daughter passed away in 2003.”
― Daniel Cormier
“I’m not nervous standing with anyone.”
― Daniel Cormier
“In my opinion, whenever you get two guys who want to fight each and two guys who want to be in a good fight, you let them fight.”
― Daniel Cormier
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