Daniel Cormier

Daniel Cormier (born March 20, 1979) is an American former professional mixed martial artist, amateur wrestler, and current commentator for the UFC.

As a former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Light Heavyweight and Heavyweight Champion, Cormier is the second fighter in UFC history to hold titles in two weight classes simultaneously and is the first fighter to have title defenses in two divisions.

When Cormier was seven, his father was shot and killed on Thanksgiving Day in 1986 by the father of his second wife.

In high school at Northside High, Cormier won three Louisiana state championships in wrestling.

After 9th grade, Cormier only lost twice, both times by injury default.

His final high school record was 101–9, with 89 of his victories coming by fall.

He was twice voted the Most Outstanding Wrestler of the state tournament.

In 1995, Cormier won a bronze medal in the World Championships in Greco-Roman Wrestling Cadet (15–16 years old) division.

He was also an All-State football player in high school at the linebacker position and had a personal best time of 4.5 seconds in the 40-yard dash.

Cormier was offered a scholarship to play football at LSU, but declined in order to continue to pursue wrestling.

After high school, he attended Colby Community College in Kansas, where he was a two-time junior college national champion at 197 pounds, in 1998 and 1999.

His record was 61–0, with 33 falls.

After Colby, Cormier transferred to Division I Oklahoma State University.

In 2000, Cormier went 26–5.

He entered the national tournament as the #3 seed at 184 pounds but fell one match short of becoming an all-American (given to the top 8 finishers in each weight class).

In 2001, Cormier went 27–5.

He became an All-American by reaching the national finals of the 184-pound weight class, in which he lost to Cael Sanderson 8–4.

His final record was 53–10, with 27 falls.

Six of Cormier's losses in college were to Cael Sanderson.

After graduating from OSU with a degree in sociology, Cormier went on to have a successful career in freestyle wrestling.

He was the senior U.S. national champion every year from 2003 to 2008 and represented team USA at the world level for each of those years.

He competed at 96 kg, or 211.6 lbs.

In the non-Olympic years, Cormier reached the top 5 at the Wrestling World Championships in 2003 and 2007.

Cormier also won a gold medal at the quadrennial Pan American Games in 2003.

At the 2004 Olympics, he came 4th after losing to Khadzhimurat Gatsalov in the semifinals.

He was crowned a champion in its first and only season in 2004, for the 211 lb weight class.

While he competed in Real Pro Wrestling, he was teammates with fellow Strikeforce mixed martial arts competitor Muhammed Lawal, who also was a season 1 champion, in the 184 lb weight class.

Another major accomplishment came in 2005, when Cormier became one of a select few Americans to win a gold medal at the Golden Grand-Prix Ivan Yarygin, held in Krasnoyarsk, Russia, and considered by many to be the most challenging wrestling tournament in the world.

Cormier also competed and represented the Oklahoma Slam team in the now-defunct Real Pro Wrestling league.

As an international wrestler, Cormier was a six-time US World or Olympic Team Member, a World bronze medalist, a World Cup runner-up, a Pan American Games gold medalist (bronze in 2007) and a two-time Pan American champion.

In folkstyle wrestling, Cormier was an NCAA Division I national finalist (with loss to the eventual four-time NCAA champion Cael Sanderson from Iowa State) and two-time Big 12 Conference runner-up for the Oklahoma State Cowboys.

He was also a two-time NJCAA champion.

Prior to competing in the UFC, Cormier was the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix Champion and King of the Cage Heavyweight Champion.

Cormier was born and raised in Lafayette, Louisiana.

Cormier is the son of Joseph and Audrey Cormier.

He has an older brother named Joseph, a sister named Felicia, and a younger brother named Ferral.

He won a bronze medal at the 2007 competition.

Cormier was also a member of the 2008 Olympic wrestling team for the USA, where he was named team captain but was pulled from competition due to kidney failure, brought on by excessive weight cutting.

Cormier is the head wrestling coach at Gilroy High School, having been appointed in the summer of 2018.

In April 21, 2021, Cormier was inducted into the LHSAA Hall of Fame due to his sporting accomplishments.