Former Strikeforce middleweight champion Luke Rockhold recently took to twitter to detail his first time ever sparring with Daniel Cormier.

Via @LukeRockhold:

Sep 2009 my first sparring session with @DC_mma . Man was this guy loud. Instigated a “real” fight inside the gym between @jakeshields and Matt Major within hours of joining the our team. I did my homework on DC and found he had some fight in him. Pushing and slapping his opponents on the wrestling mat trying to pick a fight. I liked what i saw. The next day I called him out in the ring. Coach Javier Mendez thought I was crazy given his Olympic wrestling background and the fact that he was 255 pounds at the time. We proceeded to beat the living s— out of each other. Him chasing me around the ring trying to slam me on my neck. Me trying to kick him in the face. At one point we both stood toe to toe swinging for fences attempting to take each others heads off until our arms fell to exhaustion. That day I knew I found a true friend for ages.