Speaking on the on the Jim Rome Podcast this week, UFC heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier was asked what he’ll miss most about fighting when he retires — whether that’s in March as originally planned, or a little later.
His answer was incredible.
“The walk, the tunnel. It is just fantastic,” Daniel Cormier said (transcript via MMA News). “You walk out of that locker room and it’s almost like you’re about to head to a funeral. Everybody is worried and nervous and then the music hits the speakers and all that fear turns into butterflies and your skin starts to crawl and you’re like OK let’s go. Let’s 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 that’s trained and been living in the gym for the past eight weeks to prepare to try and beat you and take this title, you go out there and you give him no reason to believe he could ever be the champion. That just makes me shoot out of that tunnel. That’s why I run. I have a fire in my pants that tells me I need to go and do business. I’m going to miss the walk.”
Daniel Cormier continued:
“I’m going to miss stepping into the Octagon. I’m going to miss that moment that it’s me in there and it’s [Bruce] Buffer and it’s my opponent and the referee and the commission and then I take three 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.
“From day one to now, every time they put that pin in the cage. 18,000, 20,000, 13,000 [people in attendance], I’ve heard it. I heard that little ping. I’ve heard that ping of that little pin dropping into that holster. I’ll miss hearing that and then the feeling that you get when you know that at this point it’s either you or him. That’s what I’m going to miss.”
What do you think of these words from Daniel Cormier?
This article first appeared on BJPENN.COM on 1/11/2019.