Cormier talks about Silva, the Grand Prix and his future

Quote :: Daniel Cormer was helping teammates Mo Lawal and Luke Rockhold
prepare for their Sept. 10 bouts when he was given the opportunity of a
lifetime. Alistair Overeem had dropped out of the Strikeforce
Heavyweight Grand Prix, and Cormier was being asked to step in and fight
Antonio Silva. For Cormier, taking the fight with Silva was a
no-brainer.

"Obviously, I had no reservations. I'm a person who thinks things
through, and when I weighed out the positives and negatives, there was
no reason for me to not take the fight," Cormier told Cagewriter.

It's a leap up in competition for the undefeated Cormier. His last
bout was a unanimous decision over journeyman heavyweight Jeff Monson.
With Overeem's withdrawal, the tournament has lost one of its biggest
names, but that doesn't bother Cormier.

"People are saying that the tournament means nothing because Overeem
is out, it's the biggest thing in my life. When I first saw the
tournament started, I thought it was the greatest collection of
heavyweights in one bracket. I still get to fight some of the best
heavyweights in the world, and if I string this together, I think it
validates me as a mixed martial artist."

Though Silva has Cormier beat on size -- "Big Foot" is six inches
taller -- Cormier says that he has other advantages to neutralize
Silva's size.

"I'm faster than he is, I'm more athletic and a better wrestler, and I
think I'm a pretty decent mixed martial artist. I've gotten better to
the point that I think I'm ready to compete with the best guys in the
world. I won't know how far I am in this journey until I do test myself
with someone like that."

The tournament concept is nothing new to Cormier. As a two-time Olympic wrestler, tournaments have ruled his athletic career.

"In wrestling, everything was tournament-based. It's not like I
haven't had to set my mind for a tournament before. I'll just draw back
on my wrestling experience, the Olympics, U.S. Nationals, world team
trials, every other tournament I've been in my whole life. I've been
going to tournaments since I was seven."

Because of that Olympic pedigree, it's hard to think of Cormier as
anything but a wrestler. Two years into his MMA career, he does believe
he is on the right path.

"I'm on my way to becoming a
full-fledged mixed martial artist. I spend a lot of times covering all
disciplines of MMA. With the Monson fight, I was fighting someone much
more experienced than me, and I was able to outstrike him. At the same
time, I don't ever want the Olympic tag to be lifted from my name. I
worked my whole life for that. No matter what I do in my life, I will
always be an Olympian."

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If Cormier beats Silva and then goes on to win this... its gonna be the biggest "underdog gets a dream shot" story since Rocky!! I think there are a lot of people underestimating him... lets hope Silva isn't one of them.

I don't think he knows what he's getting into with Silva. That's a big dude who knows how to use his size advantage. Cormier needs to get to that massive jaw before Bigfoot can take him down and wreck him.

Agreed, and I think thats where some folks might be shocked. Cormier is a good wrestler, thats a given. But he trains at AKA and you know that whole crew has been working on their hands... hell, the last guy to put Silva on his ass was a LHW from AKA...

» Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix Final Booked For May 19th, Barnett vs Cormier.
» HDNet to air "Strikeforce Grand Prix: Barnett vs. Kharitonov" prelims and weigh-ins
» Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix: At This Point, Does It Matter?