DANIEL CORMIER: Man, the stories I hear
from my mom and them.
Man I was just, I was a rough kid.
I had knots all the time in my head and my face from falling.
I've missed school pictures.
Almost every class picture I'm gone because my mom wouldn't
let me go because I had some sort of knot, or I had
something from playing in the yard or just getting hit.
-Cormier's laughing like wow, I can't believe I got out of
the way of those.
-A minute 11 left in the first.
A jab from Cormier.
-Uppercut.
Down goes Silva.
Hammer fest.
Cormier has done it.
-Wow.
-Daniel Cormier has just defeated Bigfoot.
Mama mia.
-This kid is dangerous.
DANIEL CORMIER: The money, the bright lights, all that, the
interviews, the TV.
Above everything I love the competition.
That's why I wrestled as long as I did.
You know, I wrestled in the last two
Olympics, in '04 and '08.
I walked in here as a two time Olympian, six time US national
champion, NCAA All-American at Oklahoma State University.
My manager, DeWayne Zinkin, he actually started talking to me
right out of college in 2001.
And he said listen, this is a sport for you.
He said, have you ever been in a fight?
And I was like, yeah.
I grew up in Louisiana.
If I didn't learn to fight I was just going to get beat up
all the time.
And even though I thought I knew how to fight, I still got
beat up all the time.
So he kind of just kept up with me throughout my whole
wrestling career.
And when I was ready to fight I said, hey, I'm
ready to try it.
Is there anything I need to do?
He said, well what I'm going to do is fly you out to AKA.
It was a secret tryout.
I didn't know that, but I came for about a week and I fell in
love with the place because they had Cain and Kos and all
those guys at the time.
And about a month later I was fighting in my first fight.
I told my cousin, the day of my first fight, I said I'm
going to have to become a totally different person.
Because I'm going into a cage and I'm going to fight.
It wasn't very pretty, but I won.
But then after the fight I realized I'm the same person
that I've always been.
I just understand the sport that I'm in now.
Hey, turn this off.
Come here.
You gotta do this.
BOB COOK: I'm mic'd, so.
DANIEL CORMIER: Yeah, well you just cover it.
We know your old tricks.
Come here.
BOB COOK: Can't you wait, like two minutes?
DANIEL CORMIER: No, no, no.
It's fucking awesome.
You're going to love it.
Come here, you're going to love it.
It's money in your pocket.
You know I-- it's money in your pocket.
BOB COOK: Seriously?
DANIEL CORMIER: Seriously.
BOB COOK: Go shower.
I'll meet you in a minute.
DANIEL CORMIER: How long are you going to be?
BOB COOK: I'm going to be like five minutes.
DANIEL CORMIER: You guys have three minutes.
I need my Bob.
JAVIER MENDEZ: Daniel Cormier is the biggest
jokester in our gym.
Nobody's safe from Daniel.
I'm not safe from Daniel.
He picks on me, too.
There was a point when he first came here where he was a
little too far.
He carried to the point where he almost
got these guys fighting.
It was all hell to stop it.
And then I just finally told Daniel.
I go hey Daniel, it's cool.
I get what you're doing.
But you've got to stop, OK?
He's incredible at pushing buttons.
SHAWN BUNCH: I got away from him.
DANIEL CORMIER: Are you dizzy?
JAVIER MENDEZ: He is all about the team, though.
He's all about companionship and helping a teammate out.
DANIEL CORMIER: You know if Cain's holding the belt at
heavyweight then I obviously want to fight the guy at the
lower division more than anyone else.
Because I want to get a belt.
I coach Cain and Russell.
We don't want to fight each other.
Coach athletes way different.
You don't want to hurt that guy.
And also I appreciate what Cain did for me when I stepped
into this gym.
He immediately walked over to me, gave me a hug, what's up
DC, and started working towards me getting better.
Never viewed me as anything more than a guy to train
together and get better together.
And because of that, I don't want to raise my hand to hurt
Cain Velasquez in any way, shape, or form.
No.
JAVIER MENDEZ: For Daniel Cormier, the world is
basically all his.
He can decide whatever he wants to do.
Daniel's so gifted.
Light heavyweight,
heavyweight, it doesn't matter.
I mean the man can be competitive and be a champ in
wherever division he wants to go.
It's up to Daniel.
DANIEL CORMIER: Well, I think John Jones is the best.
I really do.
And I would love to test my skills against him.
He's an unbelievable athlete.
But I just think that we get in that cage and it can be
fireworks, man.
My mom worked hard.
She did house cleaning.
My dad died when I was seven.
But my mom had already started to date my step dad who raised
me from when I was three years old.
So he's my father.
And he worked for the City of Lafayette.
So I had two very hard working parents.
I was one of the luckier kids to have two
parents in the house.
When I was younger we were on government assistance.
And then when I turned about six my mom, she didn't want to
do that anymore.
She wanted to try and make a way herself.
Her and my dad.
And they did.
So they worked hard.
Ready?
When I say go, all Moses is going to go is sprawl.
And Angel's going to crack him.
Watch, watch.
Ready, sprawl.
Good, set him to his hip.
Drop that hip, perfect.
Chris, get ready to sprawl.
Go, Chris.
It's too slow, Chris.
That's way too slow.
Diego, do it.
That's how it goes, fast.
You've got to be fast.
Chris, it can't be slow, can't be slow.
You don't want to let down the people that help you.
I carry the AKA flag on me when I go in that cage.
Nice, crack down.
Step over.
Let him up.
Stay in his face.
Pull his head.
Get on his head.
Mark Anthony, get going.
You're slowing everybody down.
That's what it's all for.
Going out there and representing yourself, your
family, your team, your gym, your coaches, and everybody
else around you in a positive light.
There's nothing like it.
You've got to know at some point you're going to have to
just bite down on your mouthpiece and fight.
That's probably the truest thing that nobody ever tells
you
I never had to do that until I fought Josh Barnett, where I
just had to go, OK this is a fight.
This guy's not going anywhere.
I'd better pack my lunch pail and get
ready to go five rounds.
And at some point everybody has to do it.
I came out somebody different.
I came out a completely different man.
I'm confident I can go through anything now.
Before there's still some concern, like man, what
happens when I get hurt?
What happens when I'm stuck in a bad position?
You don't know how you're going to react
until you do it.
Like it's something in me now.
I had to go--
25 minutes is tough when your eye's bleeding and you're
stuck in a leg lock.
And the guy that you're in front of you've punched
multiple times.
You've taken him down, you've elbowed him, you've kicked him
in the head.
And that warrior keeps coming forward.
Then you have to turn something different on.
Like man, he's not going anywhere.
I've got to start thinking a different way.
Like how far am I willing to go to win this fight?
And that's where I had to go to beat Josh.
Before, I told Bob Cook, I said I'm not going to do
armbars and Kimura locks.
Why?
Because I don't think I can break anybody's
arm to finish a fight.
I train armbars and Kimura locks now.
And I learned that in that fight.
Because now I know if I had to, I would do it.
Now I know that I'm willing to go far to win.
-How far is far?
DANIEL CORMIER: Far.
That I'm uncomfortable telling you.
-I'm not sure what that means.
DANIEL CORMIER: I know you're not.
I'm just saying I'm willing to do anything.
I want to win that fight.
I'm willing to go places that most men aren't.
OK, break my arm.
That doesn't mean we're done fighting.
That's what I mean.
JAVIER MENDEZ: Daniel dictates what he wants to do.
I believe in him and in what he can accomplish.
But his goal right now is just take care of Frank Mir.
That's his only focus.
DANIEL CORMIER: I have so much respect for Frank Mir.
I have so much respect for Josh Barnett.
But when we get in the cage, we have business to deal with.
We're going to give the fans a good show.
We're going to give people what they paid for.
You guys came to watch a fight, we'll give you a fight.
I respect Frank so much.
But that doesn't mean when we get in that cage I'm not going
to try to take his head off, as he's going to do to me.
It's part of what it is.
You train, you fight, you show respect at the end of it.
We're educated men and we're family men.
We're not crazy people.