Sports
UFC 252: Daniel Cormier’s Retirement Party Got Spoiled, but That’s OK
John Locher/Associated PressDaniel Cormier won’t be remembered for his losses. He’ll be remembered for being great. But for the inimitable former dual-division UFC champ who retired Saturday night, defeat is an inextricable part of his success story.If he follows through on his plan to retire, Cormier’s (22-3-1) MMA career ended after losing a trilogy bout…
John Locher/Associated Press
Daniel Cormier won't be remembered for his losses. He'll be remembered for being great. But for the inimitable former dual-division UFC champ who retired Saturday night, defeat is an inextricable part of his success story.
If he follows through on his plan to retire, Cormier's (22-3-1) MMA career ended after losing a trilogy bout to Stipe Miocic (20-3) in the main event of UFC 252 in Las Vegas. Miocic took a 49-46, 49-46, 48-47 unanimous decision following an entertaining back-and-forth battle with Miocic's UFC heavyweight title on the line. Like their previous bout, this fight, too, was affected by an eye poke, although this time Cormier was on the receiving end.
Before we get into the fight, though, one key fact must be acknowledged: This was a bummer. It wasn't exactly the sendoff the MMA community was hoping to give its star-crossed everyhero.
“It just sucks. Being on the losing end of big fights and trilogies, it's a very sad position to be in,” Cormier told broadcaster Joe Rogan after the fight. “But I will deal with it as I have dealt with things in the past … I'm not interested in fighting for anything but titles, and I don't imagine there's going to be a title in the future, so that'll be it for me. I've had a long run.”
Bleacher Report @BleacherReport
“That'll be it for me.”
Daniel Cormier officially announces his retirement from UFC
(via @ufc)
https://t.co/GWojZHsRZ6
Cormier is beloved in and out of the cage for his accomplishments in wrestling and MMA, encyclopedic combat sports knowledge, general exuberance and affable dadness. But his comments show he knows the truth as well as anyone: Big defeats have followed him throughout his sports career. This was just the latest example.
So UFC 252 was a bit of rain on the going-away parade, then. Some air out of the “Good Luck” balloon. A fly in the sheet cake frosting. Something sinister in the punch bowl.
The action was solid throughout and contained several momentum swings. The first round started slowly but headed up down the stretch. Both opened up shots to the heads in the later seconds, Miocic by going to the body and Cormier by feinting takedowns. Both men landed significant blows, with a huge right hand from DC providing the exclamation point in the round's closing moments.
Similarly, the second round was likely swayed by late offense, but this time the champ was dishing it out. Miocic brilliantly faked a left to the body and swarmed to the face with right hooks that put Cormier straight down, with referee Marc Goddard on the verge of stopping the action as Miocic mounted and the final seconds ticked away. But the challenger survived, though he wobbled back to his stool.
“I need you to get your head back in this game,” a DC cornerman told him between rounds.
UFC @ufc
OOOOOH! 😱
DC survives Stipe's late RD 2 attack! #UFC252 https://t.co/QFjxoWnLCH
The third round played out mainly in the clinch, with Miocic in control and DC seeming to go along for the ride. But that all changed toward the end when Miocic's finger found the deep insides of Cormier's left eye. Goddard didn't see it in real time, though Cormier told Rogan afterward that Goddard acknowledged after the fight that he'd missed it.
No matter. Cormier told his coaches “I can't see” while on his stool between rounds, and his eye was noticeably compromised from then on. He clearly couldn't see Miocic's right hand coming in, and that's not ideal. (Miocic's seven-inch reach advantage was definitely evident at this point.) But DC summoned himself and outworked Miocic over the five minutes in the fourth to make the round close. The fifth saw a diminished and exhausted Cormier fade down the stretch as Miocic retained the title going away.
But that eye poke certainly appeared to impact the action.
“I can't see anything out of my left eye,” Cormier confirmed afterward to Rogan. “It's black.”
Take nothing away from Miocic, who used clinch work and feints to great effect again, keeping Cormier on his toes throughout. Miocic is the greatest heavyweight in UFC history. But he's not a star. He knows that, and so does everyone else. It is what it is. Cormier is a star. And that's why this fight was more about him than the champ.
Cormier also has an all-time resume. He was only the second UFC fighter after Conor McGregor to simultaneously hold two belts when he did it in 2018. He's a surefire UFC Hall of Famer. He's a two-time Olympic wrestler.
But for Cormier, disappointment always seemed to come hand in hand with glory. During his college wrestling days at Oklahoma State, he was unfortunate enough to share eligibility years with the legendary Cael Sanderson.
Sanderson never lost a college match, if that gives you a sense of his skill level.
So, Cormier didn't break through like he could have. He made the 2004 Olympic team and came in fourth—a remarkable achievement, but clearly not the one he'd hoped for. That goes double for 2008, when a weight-cutting calamity forced a last-second medical withdrawal. When I spoke with Cormier earlier this week, he didn't hesitate to call 2008 the biggest regret of his career.
He also had the double-edged luck of picking a feud with the greatest MMA fighter to ever walk this planet. Cormier lost both of his light-heavyweight title fights with Jon Jones (the second became a no-contest after Jones failed a drug test, but you know what I mean) and essentially was forced to move on after the two losses despite the fact that doing so caused him real, actual pain. Cormier's tears after the second loss were hard to take.
And, of course, for those few who may not be aware, Cormier's personal life has contained so much grief and tragedy that it's difficult to even ponder.
But that's the point. Perhaps people can relate to someone who has met tragedy and found a way to get through it and keep surviving and maybe find new life on the other side. Maybe it's not pretty or easy, and maybe there's no elegant algorithm pointing the way, but there are solutions, somewhere.
UFC @ufc
One of the greatest of all-time. 🏆🏆
Thanks for the memories, @DC_MMA. https://t.co/4S4eSN1GQa
Even with all of Cormier's setbacks and adversity, does anyone think of him as a failure? No. Why? Because Cormier simply won't let you do that. There's a lot of bad, but the good outweighs it, solidly. Defeats make up just one chapter of his book, no matter how many there are or how resounding they seemed.
And that's why his retirement-party misfire isn't really that bad. Even so, Cormier's not actually retiring. He's got big plans for broadcasting, coaching and doing pretty much anything else he wants to do in between family vacations. He'll just enter the cage wearing a shirt from here on out.
Here's guessing this defeat does nothing to dim public opinion of Cormier. That's what's unique about Cormier in today's MMA landscape. It's not about wins and losses for Daniel Cormier. It's about Daniel Cormier.
Despite the tough end to his fight career Saturday, we won't forget the name any time soon.
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