By Roy Billington

Athleticism and natural ability will only get you so far. At some point, you will face adversity, and either crumble or grow stronger.

When Daniel Cormier tasted defeat for the first time against Jon Jones at UFC 182, few would have predicted his world-title win five months later. Jones’ legal troubles played a heavy role in giving Cormier another championship opportunity, but it was Cormier’s resilience in the face of adversity outside the Octagon that ultimately helped him capture his first world championship.

In 1986, as Cormier enjoyed Thanksgiving at his mother’s house, his father was shot dead by his new father-in-law. It was the first tragic moment of Cormier’s life, but it was not the last. On June 14, 2003, his daughter Kaedyn was killed in a car accident. Cormier was broke, and could not afford her headstone. And wrestling, long the bedrock of his life, was no longer important.

Cormier hid behind closed doors for months after his daughter’s death. He missed the 2004 Olympic Wrestling Trials. But after receiving support from Oklahoma State coach John Smith, Cormier found the strength to return to the mat. He won a wrestle-off with Trials winner Dean Morrison and made the United States wrestling team. And if qualifying for the Olympics wasn’t enough, Cormier managed to win the Pan-American games just months after Kaedyn’s death.

A natural athlete, Cormier excelled in a variety of sports, but wrestling became his true love. After witnessing Cormier engaged in a childhood fight against his cousin, P.J., a local high school wrestling coach urged both boys to try channeling their aggression into wrestling.


Cormier’s innate athleticism wasn’t enough when he started wrestling. Over the course of his first few months in the sport, Cormier was dominated by more technical competitors. But after losing for months, Cormier slowly began to get better.

By his sophomore year in high school, Cormier won a state title and a world cadet championship. College recruiters to begin to pay attention.

Cormier then wrestled at the junior world championships, where he took home a bronze medal. He was one of the hottest commodities in high school wrestling.

Despite an offer of a full scholarship to play football at Louisiana State, Cormier decided to continue pursuing a wrestling career. Cormier began at Colby Community College, where he trained under Steve Lampe for a year before joining Oklahoma State. There, he had a stellar collegiate career and likely would have been a national champion if not for the legendary Cael Sanderson.

At the 2004 Olympic Games in Greece, Cormier ended up fourth after losing in the semifinals. But his failure in Greece wasn’t the end of the world, because Cormier entered his athletic prime during the 2008 Olympic Games.

But Beijing was another personal low point.

Following a tough weight cut, Cormier made the 211.5-pound limit to compete in the 2008 Olympics. But when he began to rehydrate, it was apparent that something was wrong. Over the next 24 hours, his body would begin to fail. He was hospitalized and suffered kidney failure that forced him to withdraw from the Games entirely.

Four years of hard work were ruined. But there was a silver lining, because Cormier now attributes his failure in the 2008 Olympics as the reason he decided to go into mixed martial arts.

From the start, Cormier’s wrestling pedigree made his transition to MMA an easy one. During his first five years in the sport, Cormier dominated all 15 men he faced, never so much as losing a round. But when Cormier faced Jones for the UFC championship, he came up short.


In the months following the fight, Jones was involved in a hit-and-run incident, where he crashed into a pregnant woman and fled the scene. The UFC stripped Jones of his championship, and set up a fight between Cormier and Anthony Johnson. Once again, Cormier had to overcome adversity after being dropped by a powerful punch in the first round.

But this time, Cormier’s story would have a happy ending. He choked out Johnson to win the UFC championship, and then defended it in an exhilarating fight against Alexander Gustafsson in the fall. When Jones cleared his legal hurdles and was reinstated by the UFC, he was rightly granted an immediate title shot against Cormier.

Facing Jones—roundly considered the best fighter in the history of the sport—will be no easy task. But after a life spent facing down tragedy and adversity, Cormier isn't deterred by the prospect of facing an opponent as terrifying as Jones. Win or lose, Cormier is one of the toughest men on the planet.