Daniel Cormier in pursuit of fairy tale ending at UFC 252 trilogy
Few men in the history of combat sports have accomplished what former UFC two-division champ Daniel Cormier has in his long career.
Daniel has left no stone unturned going into the final fight of his career.
No matter how the heavyweight title fight trilogy against Stipe Miocic ends, Cormier knows he did everything right as he closes the door on his career.
Cormier has pushed his retirement back in order to accommodate one final fight with Miocic to decide who is the best UFC heavyweight of all time.
Daniel knows he has a special opportunity to end his career on a high note.
“I just believe that, at a point, I have to say money is money, and I’ve made a lot of it, and there’s going to always be more money,” Cormier told MMA Junkie. “If it’s in my heart that this is it then I have to stand firm in that knowing there’s going to be opportunities.
You can be the best in the world, and you can always be the best in the world until you’re not. Eventually, some time and someone will catch up to you, and I’m just making sure I get the chance to go out on top.
“I’ve won a lot. I’ve been a lucky guy in the sport, and the ability and opportunity to go out on top is unheard of. We see Georges St-Pierre constantly getting asked to come back and just the other day he says, ‘I went out on top. People don’t get that.’ I have that opportunity, and I think if I can complete this task, it’s as big as anything I’ve ever done.”
Cormier knows his body isn’t what it used to be, at 41, but his goal was to push himself as hard as possible for UFC 252.
“When we went into this training camp, I told Bob Cook: ‘If we go into training camp, and the back starts to get tight and I get hurt and I can’t get through this training camp in the way we need it to be, then we just won’t fight,’” Cormier said.
“It’s not going to be, ‘Let’s cut back on this, or if it’s hurting let’s stop. Let’s not do that.’ Let’s go and try to do a training camp in the way that we’ve always done, and if the body holds up, the body holds up. If it doesn’t, then it doesn’t. I think things are as good as they’re ever going to be, and it’s the perfect time for a trilogy fight.”
