Daniel Ryan Cormier (; born March 20, 1979) is an American former professional mixed martial artist, freestyle wrestler, and current color commentator for the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). As a former 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. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest mixed martial artists of all time.
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 2003 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. Fight Matrix currently ranks him as the seventh-greatest light heavyweight mixed martial artist of all time, the 13th-greatest heavyweight of all time, and the 14th-greatest male fighter of all time, pound-for-pound.
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Background and wrestling career
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. When Cormier was seven, his father was shot and killed on Thanksgiving Day in 1986 by the father of his second wife.
He attended Northside High School in Lafayette, where he won three Louisiana state championships in wrestling. After ninth grade, Cormier only lost twice, both by injury default. His final high-school record was 101–9, with 89 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 to continue pursuing wrestling.
After high school, he attended Colby Community College in Kansas, where he was a two-time junior college national champion, winning 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 No. 3 seed at 184 pounds but fell one match short of becoming an All-American (the top eight in each weight class). In 2001, Cormier went 27–5. He became an All-American and reached 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 had 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. At the 2004 Olympics, he came fourth after losing to Khadzhimurat Gatsalov in the semi-finals. Cormier was also a member of the 2008 Olympic wrestling team for the USA, where he was named team captain but pulled from competition due to kidney failure from excessive weight cutting.
In the non-Olympic years, Cormier reached the top five at the Wrestling World Championships in 2003 and 2007. He won a bronze medal at the 2007 competition. Cormier also won a gold medal at the quadrennial Pan American Games in 2003. 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 the most challenging wrestling tournament in the world.
Mixed martial arts career
Xtreme MMA
After the 2008 Olympics, Cormier decided to pursue a career in mixed martial arts. He trained with Cain Velasquez, Jon Fitch, and Josh Koscheck at American Kickboxing Academy. It helped him improve as a striker and submission wrestler.
After making his professional debut in September 2009, Cormier traveled to Australia and fought for Xtreme MMA. He defeated Lucas Browne to win the XMMA Heavyweight Championship on July 31, 2010. Two weeks later, Cormier won his second MMA title by winning the KOTC Heavyweight Championship from Tony Johnson.
Strikeforce
Cormier signed an eight-fight deal with the Strikeforce organization and debuted at Strikeforce Challengers: Kennedy vs. Cummings, defeating Gary Frazier by TKO.
Cormier fought at the event Strikeforce Challengers: Johnson vs. Mahe on March 26, 2010, in Fresno, California, where he defeated John Devine by KO.
Shortly thereafter, Cormier fought Strikeforce: Houston event on August 21, 2010, defeating Jason Riley via submission (punches) at 1:02 into the fight.
Cormier next fought Devin Cole at the Strikeforce Challengers: Woodley vs. Saffiedine event on January 7, 2011, in Nashville, Tennessee. He won via unanimous decision, the first time a fight of his had gone the distance.
Cormier was scheduled to face Shane del Rosario at Strikeforce: Overeem vs. Werdum on June 18, 2011, in Dallas, Texas, but his opponent was involved in a car accident and withdrew from the bout. Cormier instead faced Jeff Monson and won via decision. Cormier used his striking to dominate Monson on the feet and did not allow for any takedowns, negating Monson's submission ability.
Despite Cormier's reservations about competing in the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix due to inexperience, height and reach disadvantage over the rest of the field, he nonetheless entered, and faced Antônio Silva on only five weeks' notice on September 10, 2011, at Strikeforce: Barnett vs. Kharitonov, replacing Alistair Overeem. In a shocking upset, he won the fight via KO (punches) in the first round, catching Silva with multiple hits to the jaw, causing him to collapse, and then finishing with two hammer blows to the face of the grounded Silva before the referee could stop the fight. Cormier later revealed that he had broken his hand during the fight.
He faced fellow finalist Josh Barnett on May 19, 2012, at Strikeforce: Barnett vs. Cormier. Cormier won the five-round fight by unanimous decision (49–46, 50–45, and 50–45) and became the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix Champion. It was discovered that Cormier, once again, had broken his right hand during his bout with Barnett, and he underwent hand surgery.
Ultimate Fighting Championship
Cormier made his promotional debut against Frank Mir on April 20, 2013, at UFC on Fox 7. He won the fight via unanimous decision. Due to Cain Velasquez, Cormier's teammate, being the UFC heavyweight champion, Cormier considered moving down to the UFC's light heavyweight division. Some writers expressed doubt in his ability to cut down to the 205 limit safely, citing the fact that Cormier had suffered kidney failure during his time as an Olympic wrestler when trying to make 211 lbs. After failing to compete at the Olympics, he gained 40 lbs.
In his second UFC fight, Cormier faced Roy Nelson on October 19, 2013, at UFC 166. He won the fight via unanimous decision. Prior to the bout, he announced that, win or lose, he would be moving down to the light heavyweight division. Cormier weighed in for the bout more than 20 pounds lighter than previous contests, at 224 pounds.
Cormier was expected to face Rashad Evans at UFC 170 on February 22, 2014, in his first fight at light heavyweight. However, a leg injury knocked Evans off the card ten days before the event, and he was replaced by newcomer Patrick Cummins. Cormier won the fight via TKO in the first round.
Cormier was briefly linked to a bout with Rafael Cavalcante on July 5, 2014, at UFC 175. However, it was announced that Cormier would instead be fighting Dan Henderson on May 24, 2014, at UFC 173. After dominating the fight with his wrestling and top game, Cormier choked Henderson to sleep to win via technical submission in the third round.
Daniel Cormier was chosen as spokesperson for his new Cage Fighter signature wrestling shoe when he competed in an exhibition wrestling match against Chris Pendleton during the UFC Fan Expo.
Cormier was expected to face UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones at UFC 178 on September 27, 2014, after Alexander Gustafsson was forced to withdraw due to a torn meniscus. However, on August 12, Jones, citing an injury, was forced to pull out of the bout. The fight eventually took place at UFC 182. At UFC 182 Cormier was defeated by Jon Jones via unanimous decision. Both fighters were awarded a Fight of the Night bonus.
Championships and accomplishments
Mixed martial arts
Ultimate Fighting Championship
UFC Hall of Fame (Modern Wing, Class of 2022)
UFC Heavyweight Championship (One time)
One successful title defense
Tied (Jon Jones, Francis Ngannou, Tom Aspinall, Frank Mir, Junior dos Santos, and Fabrício Werdum) for seventh most title fight wins in UFC Heavyweight division history (2)
UFC Light Heavyweight Championship (One time)
Three successful title defenses
Fourth most title fight wins in UFC Light Heavyweight division history (4)
Most significant strikes landed in a UFC Light Heavyweight title fight (140)
Fight of the Night (Two times) vs. Jon Jones and Alexander Gustafsson
Performance of the Night (Three times) vs. Anthony Johnson 1, Volkan Oezdemir and Stipe Miocic 1
Most significant strikes landed in a UFC Heavyweight fight (181)
Most strikes landed per minute in UFC Heavyweight division history (5.39)
Fourth highest significant strike accuracy in UFC Heavyweight division history (61.6%)
Third lowest bottom percentage in UFC Heavyweight division history (0.41%)
Tied (Mick Parkin) for sixth lowest bottom position time in UFC Heavyweight division history (0:21)
Freestyle wrestling
United World Wrestling (FILA)
2007 Wrestling World Championships Bronze Medalist
2007 Pan American Games Bronze Medalist
2007 Dave Schultz Memorial International Open Gold Medalist
2005 Super Cup Silver Medalist
2005 Wrestling World Cup Silver Medalist
2005 Ivan Yarygin Memorial Tournament Senior Gold Medalist
2004 Boutiatyr Grand Prix Gold Medalist
2003 FILA Absolute Championship Bronze Medalist
2003 Ivan Yarygin Cup Bronze Medalist
2003 Pan American Games Gold Medalist
2002 Medved International Championships Gold Medalist
2002 Sunkist Kids/ASU International Open Gold Medalist
2002 Pan American Championships Gold Medalist
2002 Dave Schultz Memorial International Open Bronze Medalist
2001 Sunkist Kids International Open Gold Medalist
2001 Dave Schultz Memorial International Open Gold Medalist
USA Wrestling
USA Senior National Championship (2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008)
Greco-Roman wrestling
United World Wrestling (FILA)
1995 Cadet World Championships Bronze Medalist
Folkstyle wrestling
National Collegiate Athletic Association
NCAA Division I 184 lb National Runner-up out of Oklahoma State University (2001)
NCAA Division I All-American out of Oklahoma State University (2001)
Big 12 Conference
Big 12 184 lb National Runner-up out of Oklahoma State University (2000, 2001)
National Junior College Athletic Association
NJCAA Wrestling Hall of Fame Inductee (2009)
NJCAA Collegiate National Championship (1998, 1999)
NJCAA All-American (1998, 1999)
National High School Coaches Association
NHSCA Senior All-American (1997)
Louisiana High School Athletic Association
LHSAA Hall of Fame – Class of 2021
LHSAA Division I High School State Championship (1995, 1996, 1997)
LHSAA Division I All-State (1995, 1996, 1997)
ASICS Tiger High School All-American (1996, 1997)
Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame – Class of 2024
Personal life
Cormier and a former girlfriend had one daughter who died in a car accident on June 14, 2003. He was previously married to a woman named Robin.
Cormier resides in Gilroy, California where he is heavily involved in the local wrestling community. He serves as the head coach of the Gilroy High School wrestling team and opened up his own wrestling academy in 2021.
On February 16, 2011, he and his then-fiancée Salina Deleon had a son, Daniel Jr. Daniel Jr. trains in amateur wrestling at AKA, where Cormier is the assistant coach. On March 4, 2012, Cormier and his fiancée had a daughter. In June 2017, Cormier and Deleon were married.
Cormier is a dedicated fan of the New Orleans Saints and professional wrestling.
On March 5, 2022, Cormier was absent from the commentary team for UFC 272 to attend his mother's funeral. His family is Catholic.
On June 14, 2026, Cormier posted a screenshot of his interaction with Eric Trump on X, which appeared to show Eric Trump asking for insider information about the UFC Freedom 250 fight. Eric Trump later responded: "We are aware of the fake, AI generated screenshots being circulated online. I have never spoken to Daniel. He has since deleted his post, which confirms it was clearly fabricated." Cormier later denied the interaction took place, claiming that his account had been "hacked or something".
Media appearances
Cormier made his film debut in 2014, playing himself in the 2014 comedy Mantervention.
In February 2015, Cormier starred in the video clip All About That Cake, a parody of All About That Bass, to promote the 2015 World MMA Awards.
In January 2018, he was featured on an episode of Sneaker Shopping on the YouTube channel Complex.
In February 2019 he featured in "Sub-Zero's Head Shatter", the first episode of the YouTube series "The Science of Mortal Kombat" by Because Science.
On October 8, 2022, Cormier was the special guest referee in the MMA inspired Fight Pit match between Seth Rollins and Matt Riddle at WWE Extreme Rules 2022.