Daniel Cormier: Once I Retire, I’ll Miss Walking To The Octagon And Hearing The Cage Door Close
Daniel Cormier explains what he’ll miss once he steps away from fighting.
The 39-year old Lafayette, Louisiana native Daniel Cormier has had a successful career in MMA. Cormier is the reigning UFC Heavyweight Champion, a former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion, former Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix Champion and has an abundance of amateur wrestling awards and honors under his belt.
Cormier has never been shy about saying that he has a set plan and a timeframe of when he wants to retire and has narrowed it down to a date near his birthday which is March 20th. When Cormier joined ‘The Jim Rome’ podcast this past November, Jim asked D.C. towards the end of their conversation what is Cormier going to miss the most when his career is all said and done and Cormier shared the following:
“The walk, Jim. The tunnel, man. It is the most… I mean it is just fantastic.” Cormier said. “Like, you walk out of that locker room and it’s almost like you’re about to head to a funeral. Everybody’s worried and nervous, and then the music hits the speakers, and all that fear turns into this — it’s just like butterflies and your skin starts to crawl and you’re like, ‘Okay, lets go. Lets go do what I really know I was made to do. You get to compete again Daniel Cormier, so go out there and do it in a way that you know you can do it. Go and fight this man. Go and try to take this guy, who is out there that’s trained, that’s been living in this gym for the last eight weeks preparing to beat you and take this title. You go out there and you give him no reason to believe that he could ever be the champion’, and that just makes me shoot out of that tunnel. That’s why I don’t walk. That’s why I run, because I have a fire in my pants that tells me I need to go and do business.” He explained. “It’s great. I’m gonna miss the walk. I’m gonna miss stepping into that octagon. I’m gonna miss that moment that I’m in there, and there’s me and it’s [Bruce] Buffer and it’s my opponent, the referee and the Commission, and then I take three steps back, four steps back after we shake hands and I look across and I look to my left and I look to my right and nobody else is there anymore. It’s just me, that official and that guy, and from day one to now Jim, every time they put that pin in the cage, eighteen thousand, twenty thousand, thirteen thousand, eight, nine, I’ve heard it. I hear that little ping of that pin dropping into that little holder. I’ll miss hearing that, and then the feeling you get when you know that at this point it’s either you or him. Yeah, that’s what I’m gonna miss.”
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If the quote in this article is used, please credit ‘The Jim Rome’ podcast with an H/T to Fightful for the transcription.
