Daniel Cormier shares the two biggest regrets from his UFC career: “People still make fun of me”

Former champ-champ Daniel Cormier has shared the two biggest regrets from his storied career with the UFC.

Cormier (22-3 MMA) retired from the sport in 2020 following his second straight defeat at the hands of Stipe Miocic. Now almost three years removed from that setback, ‘DC’ admits that he wishes he would have hung up his gloves a bit sooner.

“I probably would have retired after I beat Stipe the first time or beat Derrick Lewis,” Cormier said of his career regrets at a UFC 285 Heavyweight fan Q&A (h/t MMAMania). “Just to be done. Because I threw my back out and I just wasn’t as good.”

Daniel Cormier continued by highlighting an embarrassing moment from his Octagon debut against Frank Mir in 2013:

“Also, I might not have thrown that kick against Frank [Mir],” he added. “You remember that kick I tried to do? When I jumped and tried to kick you. You looked at me like, ‘What the f—k are you doing?’ I might have not done that in the Octagon because people still make fun of me about jumping trying to kick Frank. They called me the Kung-Fu Panda.”

Cormier went 11-3 during his seven-year stint competing for the Ultimate Fighting Championship. He captured the promotion’s vacant light heavyweight title at UFC 187 in 2015, submitting the late great Anthony Johnson with a rear-naked choke in the third round. ‘DC’ went on to defend that title on three separate occasions, defeating Alexander Gustafsson, Rumble (for a second time) and Volkan Oezdemir in that stretch.

Daniel Cormier would later go on to capture the UFC’s heavyweight world title by defeating Stipe Miocic via first-round knockout at UFC 226. He defended that title on one occasion by submitting Derrick Lewis in November of 2018, this before dropping the belt in a rematch with Stipe Miocic.

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