{"id":246659,"date":"2017-08-14T07:15:56","date_gmt":"2017-08-14T14:15:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/?p=246659"},"modified":"2017-08-14T07:15:56","modified_gmt":"2017-08-14T14:15:56","slug":"coach-javier-mendez-daniel-cormier-crossroads-fighting-career","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/daniel-cormier\/coach-javier-mendez-daniel-cormier-crossroads-fighting-career\/","title":{"rendered":"Coach Javier Mendez: Daniel Cormier is &#8220;at a crossroads&#8221; in his fighting career"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>On July 29, in the main event of the stacked UFC 214, then UFC light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier attempted to defend his title against his fiercest rival in former champion Jon Jones. Though Cormier put forth a valiant effort, he was ultimately<a href=\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc-214\/ufc-214-results-jon-jones-defeats-daniel-cormier-highlights\/\"> flattened by a Jones head-kick in the third<\/a>, and polished off by a hellacious strafing of ground strikes in the subsequent moments.<\/p>\n<p>Given the stakes of this fight, it came as no surprise when Cormier broke down in tears post-fight. And though he gave <a href=\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/daniel-cormier\/daniel-cormier-issues-first-statement-following-title-loss-jon-jones-ufc-214\/\">a positive update on Instagram the following evening<\/a>, it was clear that his road to recovery would probably be a long one. There was even some doubt as to whether he&#8217;d fight again.<\/p>\n<p>While Cormier&#8217;s fighting future is still far from certain, his coach Javier Mendez recently assured <a href=\"http:\/\/www.dailystar.co.uk\/sport\/ufc\/637278\/Daniel-Cormier-Jon-Jones-UFC-214-Crossroads-Javier-Mendez-UFC-News-MMA-News\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>Starsport<\/em><\/a><em>\u00a0<\/em>that he&#8217;s doing ok.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>\u201cI\u2019ve been in contact with him every day, he\u2019s fine,&#8221; Mendez said.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cHe\u2019s at crossroads like every great fighter, you know? Do they continue (or not)? But I\u2019ve got a funny feeling we haven\u2019t seen the end of Daniel, not in the fight world.&#8221;<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Mendez then elaborated that while it&#8217;s possible that Cormier chooses to hang up the gloves, he will continue to coach at American Kickboxing Academy, and to work as an MMA analyst on Fox Sports.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>&#8220;He\u2019s still going to be commentating and he\u2019s still going to involved as a coach at AKA. He\u2019s the greatest wrestling coach that I\u2019ve ever experienced.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cSo he\u2019s going to be in my life until I\u2019m done. So I haven\u2019t seen the last Daniel.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cBut as a fighter, that\u2019s on Daniel. But I think the world hasn\u2019t seen the last of him either.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Do you think Daniel Cormier will ever fight again? If he does, who would you like to see him fight?<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><i>This article first appeared on\u00a0<\/i><a href=\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/\"><span class=\"s1\"><i>BJPenn.com<\/i><\/span><\/a><i>\u00a0on 8\/14\/2017.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On July 29, in the main event of the stacked UFC 214, then UFC light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier attempted to defend his title against his fiercest rival in former champion Jon Jones. Though Cormier put forth a valiant effort, he was ultimately flattened by a Jones head-kick in the third, and polished off by [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54430,"featured_media":159820,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[10153],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v19.7 (Yoast SEO v19.14) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Coach Javier Mendez: Daniel Cormier is &quot;at a crossroads&quot; in his fighting career | BJPenn.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/daniel-cormier\/coach-javier-mendez-daniel-cormier-crossroads-fighting-career\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Coach Javier Mendez: Daniel Cormier is &quot;at a crossroads&quot; in his fighting career | BJPenn.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"On July 29, in the main event of the stacked UFC 214, then UFC light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier attempted to defend his title against his fiercest rival in former champion Jon Jones. Though Cormier put forth a valiant effort, he was ultimately flattened by a Jones head-kick in the third, and polished off by [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/daniel-cormier\/coach-javier-mendez-daniel-cormier-crossroads-fighting-career\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"| BJPenn.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bjpenn\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-08-14T14:15:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/Daniel-Cormier.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"730\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"380\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Tom Taylor\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@bjpenndotcom\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@bjpenndotcom\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Tom Taylor\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/daniel-cormier\/coach-javier-mendez-daniel-cormier-crossroads-fighting-career\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/daniel-cormier\/coach-javier-mendez-daniel-cormier-crossroads-fighting-career\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Tom Taylor\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/person\/e1a3f1e5a045aeaf5b59aa1549a06a87\"},\"headline\":\"Coach Javier Mendez: Daniel Cormier is &#8220;at a crossroads&#8221; 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