Neil Davidson, The Canadian Press
Daniel Cormier doesn’t need to be told that sports is just a game. The former amateur wrestling star and fledgling mixed martial arts fighter has already had too many reminders of the real world.
Life has knocked him down. Cormier has got back up. It has just taken some time.
Most recently, Cormier fell into a deep funk when a kidney problem sidelined him on the eve of competition at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.
Having come fourth at the 2004 Games, Cormier was primed for wrestling success at Beijing only to have his body shut down ” in the words of his doctor ” “at the worst possible time.”
“It was like death, it was like dealing with a death, “Cormier recalled. “When I first got home, I wouldn’t leave my house, I wouldn’t do anything.”
His friends urged him to get out, to stop dwelling on it.
“So many days I just stayed in my house, crying. I was just miserable. Because it was a lifetime dream, it was the culmination of my career. I had a good year leading into that. I was ranked top three in the world going into the Olympic Games. It just didn’t work out.
“It was sad. But I had to deal with it. I had to deal with it like I dealt with death and everything else negative that happened over the course of my life.
Cormier, 31, has suffered through multiple tragedies.
His father was shot to death on Thanksgiving Day in 1986 when Daniel was seven. While at Oklahoma State, his best friend was killed in the plane crash involving the university basketball team.
And in 2003 his 3 1/2-month-old daughter Kaedyn Imri Cormier died in a car crash. He was devastated but, 18 months later, made the U.S. Olympic team.
“All the stuff that I have dealt with has made the man that I am today, “said Cormier.
“It sucks, “he added. “But then every time I got knocked down, I’ve been taught to climb back on the horse. “¦ It taught me how to say, in reality, sports, it’s so small in the grand scheme of everything, it’s so small in the grand scheme of things.”
But it took several months for that message to get through after Beijing.
“It took somebody to tell me ‘Daniel, think about life, man. Think about your life in general. Think about your life and all the things that you had to overcome. A sporting event can’t do this to you. You lost a daughter, bro. Your father got killed on Thanksgiving Day.'”
The lecture helped Cormier finally put things in perspective.
“It taught me to say ‘You know what, I do need to get back on the horse, stop feeling sorry for myself and recognize that it’s sports.’ So when guys lose (in sports), it’s bad, it sucks. But come on. In life there’s so many things worse that can happen.”
Today Cormier says he is in “a great place.”
“I am who I am. I’m Daniel. I’ve been through all this stuff, I’ve overcome all this stuff. I’ve accomplished the things that I’ve done through hard work and dedication.
“Now it’s time for me to capitalize on it. I had many, many occasions where I could have done something unbelievably special ” from being an NCAA champion, to being an Olympic champion, to being as world champion. And at every time I haven’t been able to fully grasp my opportunities.
“So I’m hoping in mixed martial arts, this time it’ll happen.”
Cormier (6-0) meets IFL veteran Devin Cole (18-8-1) on Friday in a Strikeforce Challengers event at the Nashville Municipal Auditorium (Superchannel, 11 p.m. ET).
Welterweight Tyron Woodley (7-0) takes on Tarec (Sponge) Saffiedine (10-2) in the main event. Also on the card, middleweight Julia (The Jewel) Budd (1-0) of Port Moody, B.C., faces American-based Brazilian Amanda (Lioness Of The Ring) Nunes (5-1).
Cormier, 5-11 and 249 pounds, fought five times in 2010 after making his pro debut in September 2009. His last five bouts all ended in the first round.
Two of those fights were in Australia as Cormier literally travelled the globe to see action.
“Initially it was tough, man. We were having to ask three and four guys every time it came time to fight. “¦ I want to fight. I think it’s really important for me to get experience because of my age. You know, I’m 31. My pace has to be a little more accelerated than most guys at this point.”
Fighters saw little gain in fighting Cormier. Given his lack of MMA experience, they were supposed to beat him. A loss to a greenhorn, albeit one with Olympic wrestling experience, would only set them back.
Cormier believes he has now reached the point in his career where his opposition is good enough that they won’t turn down fights.
Cormier switched his attention to MMA a year after the 2008 Olympic debacle.
He had been working at a small TV station in Stillwater, Okla., as accounts manager. He also appeared on air for two weekly shows on high school and college wrestling.
“I was sitting in my office all day and I was thinking ‘Man, this sucks.’ Getting up at 7:30 every morning, 6:30, to get my clothes ready to be at work by eight. Just that life wasn’t for me. When you have a competitive spirit inside of you, sitting in an office every day doesn’t really do (satisfy) that. And then going to wrestle with the (Oklahoma State) college team doesn’t really quench it.
“I knew I didn’t want to wrestle anymore but I knew I needed to be doing something competitive.”
Muhammed (King Mo) Lawal, his best friend, training partner and former college wrestling teammate, was already in MMA and urging him to try it.
Finally, Cormier gave in and went to the renowned American Kickboxing Academy in San Jose to give it a shot.
“I was like, ‘OK. This is it. I’m fighting.”
Today he trains and serves as head wrestling coach at AKA, helping draft the blueprint that Cain Velasquez used to dethrone UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar.
Runner-up in the NCAA in 2001, Cormier won six straight U.S. wrestling championships from 2003 to 2008.
He won gold at the 2003 Pan American Games and bronze in 2007, finishing third at the 2007 world championships in the 96-kilogram division.
Cormier was just hours away from competing at the 2008 Olympics, having made weight and learned his draw.
“I was good to go. And then my body, it just shut down, went into just shock. It was crazy. They said my kidneys were working at about 18 to 20 per cent.”
He was not cleared to train at the Olympic training centre until July 2009, an absence of almost a year, because doctors feared the problem might resurface.
“A lot of it was due to the fact that I cut weight for so long and I was cutting weight the wrong way for so long. It was detrimental to my body, like doing all those bad things ” not eating for two days at a time to make weight, sucking off a whole bunch of water at the end, being too heavy and cutting down.
“It was a lot of things that played into that at the Olympic Games. I’m not going to sit here and make it seem like it wasn’t my fault. It was. It was my fault, by doing things so wrong for so long.”
Short for a heavyweight at 5-11, Cormier might best be served by dropping down to light-heavyweight (205 pounds). The fighter says it’s an option but only if his team says so.
“If it was up to me, I’m fine where I am right now. Because I spent 50 per cent of my time worrying about weight control and weight management when I was wrestling. So I didn’t get my skills to the point that they needed to be to be an Olympic champion.
“Right now, I’m able to just focus on training and getting better. That’s why I’ve improved so fast.”
Originally from Lafayette, La., Cormier is enjoying life in San Jose, where he lives just minutes from the gym.
“The weather’s nice, the people are nice. I love San Jose.”
After his fighting career, Cormier hopes to coach wrestling.
“I love being around wrestling, man. I miss it.”
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