Daniel Cormier

About Daniel Cormier

Daniel Cormier, a relatively short Heavyweight, has met success against bigger opponents in freestyle wrestling and later in Mixed Martial Arts. Cormier was raised in Lafayette, Louisiana where he was raised by his mother and stepfather. Cormier became a pro wrestling fan by age 10, which he watched on TV often. When he was 11, a coach introduced him to wrestling after breaking up a parking lot fight with him and a friend. He attended Louisiana High School where he won his first medals, thrice winning a Division I All-American and State championships. Cormier also played the linebacker position in football, and was offered a scholarship to play at Louisiana State University. He chose wrestling instead, and in 1997 he went to Colby Junior College in Kansas where he attended for two years, then transferred to Oklahoma State University (OSU). It was at OSU that he became a roommate and friend of King Mo. In 2001 he was a runner-up in the NCAA Division I Collegiate Championship and NCAA Big 12 Conference. Cormier won a gold medal at the 2002 at the Pan American Games, and another in 2003 during the Pan American Games. In 2007, he won bronze medals at the FILA Wrestling World Championships, and the FILA Wrestling World Championships.While preparing to audition for the Olympics team, Cormier's 3 1/2 month daughter,Kaedyn Imri Cormier , died in a car accident on June 14, 2003 in Austin, Texas. The car she was in was hit by a 18 wheeler truck. Severely afflicted by the loss, Cormier stopped wrestling. After some time off, he made the 2004 US Olympics team in Athens, where he finished 4th. Cormier declined an offer from World Wrestling Entertaiment, and to try for the Olympics again. Due to a kidney failure he sustained from cutting weight to 211.5 pounds, Cormier withdrew from the US Olympic wrestling team in 2008, a day before he was to compete in the Beijing Olympics. Cormier could not train for a year, which ended his wrestling career.In 2009, Cormier started to train in Mixed Martial Arts out of San Jose's American Kickboxing Academy (AKA) , training with King Mo, Cain Velasquez, and Luke Rockhold. Injuring his ribs a week before, Cormier fought fellow OSU alumni, Gary Frazier, in his first bout at Strikeforce Challengers: Strikeforce Challengers 3 (2009). Cormier kept the fight standing by defending a takedown, landing a knee and taking control of Frazier's back and dominating him on the ground for a portion of the round. After exchanging punches in the second round, Cormier failed to get the takedown after numerous attempts when Frazier held the fence. Cormier gets the better of the stand-up by landing right punches and uppercuts. Frazier missed a knee strike and slipped, which Cormier took advantage of and gets top to land multiple punches to the head and won by TKO. Cormier got his first knockout at Strikeforce Challengers: Strikeforce Challengers 7 (2010), defeating John Devine in the first round.Cormier remained active outside of Strikeforce (2006) in July 2010, initiating the busiest weeks of his MMA career by taking a fight against Lucas Browne in the Australian promotion Xtreme MMA, replacing injuring teammate Mike Kyle with two days notice. In a bout for the XMMA Heavyweight Championship, Cormier took Brown e to the ground early, and won with devastating striking in four and a half minutes, resulting in Browne receiving up to one hundred stitches. Cormier returned to the United States two weeks later to challenge Tony Johnson Jr. ...

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