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Former UFC champion Daniel Cormier has revealed his two biggest regrets from his illustrious career.
After losing to Stipe Miocic twice in a row, Cormier (22-3 MMA) decided to call it quits in 2020. Nearly three years after that setback, "DC" acknowledges that he wishes he had hung up his gloves a little earlier.
“I probably would have retired after I beat Stipe the first time or beat Derrick Lewis,” Cormier said of his career regrets at a UFC 285 Heavyweight fan Q&A. “Just to be done. Because I threw my back out and I just wasn’t as good.”
“Also, I might not have thrown that kick against Frank [Mir],” he added. “You remember that kick I tried to do? When I jumped and tried to kick you. You looked at me like, ‘What the f—k are you doing?’ I might have not done that in the Octagon because people still make fun of me about jumping trying to kick Frank. They called me the Kung-Fu Panda.”
During his seven-year career as an Ultimate Fighting Championship fighter, Cormier had an 11-3 record. At UFC 187 in 2015, he won the vacant light heavyweight title by submitting the late great Anthony Johnson with a rear-naked choke in the third round. In the following three defences of that championship, "DC" triumphed over Volkan Oezdemir, Alexander Gustafsson, and Rumble.
Later, Daniel Cormier would defeat Stipe Miocic via first-round knockout at UFC 226 to win the heavyweight world championship for the UFC. Before losing the title in a rematch with Stipe Miocic, he made one defence of the title through submission of Derrick Lewis in November 2018.