Cormier welcomes fights with FEDOR, Kharitonov, Rizzo or Sylvia

[DaSilva]

Strikeforce heavyweight grand prix champion Daniel Cormier is far too beaten up to dwell on his future at this moment.

Five grueling rounds with Josh Barnett earlier this month at "Strikeforce: Heavyweight Grand Prix Final" left him with a broken right hand (his third in eight months), a split eyelid that winked to the press in red, and the biggest win of his brief fight career.

"It's not that day when you get up and go out and go to a family barbeque," Cormier told MMAjunkie.com Radio (www.mmajunkie.com/radio) of the aftermath following the tourney finals, which took place May 19 in San Jose, Calif. "I was laying in bed. I was crying to my mom. I felt like a 4-year-old."

Strikeforce owes broadcast partner Showtime another Cormier (10-0 MMA, 6-0 SF) fight before the end of the year. A medical suspension could keep him out six months, though a doctor can clear him before that. Following hand surgery, a PR rep told MMAjunkie.com the fighter is likely to return in the fall.

Many say Cormier is a shoo-in for a move to the UFC and perhaps an immediate title shot. He isn't yet joining that chorus, but he does have a greater sense of what's possible inside the cage.

"I didn't know if I could do it; I'm not going to lie," he said. "But once I got in the tournament, I had to believe in myself."

A Strikeforce tournament alternate in an eight-man field that included four former champs, Cormier, a longtime wrestler and fourth-place finisher at the 2004 Olympics, was seen as a long shot when he replaced Alistair Overeem in the semifinals. A knockout win over Antonio Silva this past September opened more eyes (and broke that right hand). But not until his systematic shutdown of Barnett, a former UFC champ ranked in most top-10 lists, did he cement status as one of the world's best heavyweights and a threat to octagon dwellers everywhere.

"It's been a crazy ride for a year and two months," Cormier said.

Finding the new champ's next opponent could be a tougher task than concluding the oft-delayed grand prix. Prior to the finals, Cormier and Barnett were the only heavyweights officially in Strikeforce, which has seen its roster drained by parent promotion UFC.

"This is the biggest problem," Cormier said. "I don't know how they're going to convince someone to do it. It's going to have to be someone from the outside."

It could, however, be an opponent from Strikeforce's past. Cormier said he gladly would fight Fedor Emelianenko, whom Silva knocked out in the tourney quarterfinals. However, contract negotiations wouldn't likely get far.

"That would be awesome," he said. "Won't happen, though."


http://mmajunkie.com/news/28935/stri...medium=twitter


-------------------------------------------------------------------------

One can always hope. Cormier is the latest new breed, top10, maybe even top5 right now. It would be the best fight for Fedor to finish his career, most likely with the W.

[Best80smovieRAD]

Cormier smashes all 4 of them in my opinion

Too bad they won't give him any of the 4, i'll laugh if Barnett just fights Cormier in a rematch to end their 1 fight left contracts

[Buckery]

Are you saying Fedor would beat Cormier?

Got my doubts about that partner

[funkin]

kharitonov would the beat the s hit out of him if he had decent tdd.and well prepared fedor beats him.but also wellprepared fedor can beat anyone

[mmasteve]

Cormier smashes all 4 of them in my opinion

Too bad they won't give him any of the 4, i'll laugh if Barnett just fights Cormier in a rematch to end their 1 fight left contracts

Agreed DC would win but what would be the point all except Sylvia got knockout out of the HW tourney. Putting dc against Sylvia would be like 1st degree murder

[Cbear]

DC vs Monson and Barnett vs marco Ruas

[Bigbeat]

I don't think anyone in the heavyweight division has the TDD to stop a Cormier take down. Joe Rogan always talks about how people have world class wrestling, but Cormier actually has world class wrestling. He was favoured to medal at the Olympics after all.

He's got fast hands, amazing wrestling, sick ground and pound, and apparently has enough cardio to go 5 rounds, so he's a pretty well rounded dude overall. I think it would take someone like Werdum who has a killer guard and great stand up to beat him. Werdum is really good at using a butterfly guard to nullify the wrestler's ground and pound, and is deadly enough off his back that you can't just lay and pray on him since he's always searching for submissions. Someone like that I think is the key to beating Cormier.

[jmose86]

I don't think anyone in the heavyweight division has the TDD to stop a Cormier take down. Joe Rogan always talks about how people have world class wrestling, but Cormier actually has world class wrestling. He was favoured to medal at the Olympics after all.

Speaking of Cormier's wrestling.. I don't know who all read this or if it was posted here and I missed it, but there was a really great article breaking down the effectiveness and specifics of DC's wrestling style a week ago on BE. It will make a lot of sense for those here that wrestled and even if you didn't it provides some great detail on what he specifically does well. Leads me to believe even someone with the TDD like JDS will have problems stopping Cormier from eventually getting him to the ground.

http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2012/5/22...s-josh-barnett

[Bigbeat]

Yeah I've read that article. There's been a few really good articles on Cormier's wrestling from that same writer where he breaks down the things that Cormier does and has done in the past that sets him apart from the average wrestler in MMA. He has a really diverse array of take downs and ways of getting the fight to the mat.

He's not just a power double or single leg take down kind of guy. In the Barnett fight he showed he has a really good sense of how to use someone's own weight and momentum against them, as well as using his own strength at the right time to get the takedown. The way he just yanked on Barnett's leg as if he was trying to rip it off and using that to get him down was pretty impressive.

Thats what leads me to believe that just sprawling or using conventional TDD methods won't work since it seems most of those methods are designed to deal with single and double leg takedowns, and Cormier has a lot more at his disposal.

I just think that if Cormier is fighting someone and he wants the fight to go to the ground, it's probably going to go there, so it would seem that a super deadly active guard is the only way to deal with him because more than likely you'll wind up on your back.

[HugeMMAFan]

I don't think anyone in the heavyweight division has the TDD to stop a Cormier take down. Joe Rogan always talks about how people have world class wrestling, but Cormier actually has world class wrestling. He was favoured to medal at the Olympics after all.

I think Rogan's commentary needs to move on with the times. He often used to say Mir and Nelson had "world" class wrestling, and we know that's definitely not the case. He also says "World Class" *insert here* for a lot of things. Hyperbole.