{"id":36603,"date":"2026-02-03T16:05:26","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T16:05:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sherdog.com\/news\/news\/Daniel-Cormier-Changed-Weight-Classes-to-Avoid-Fighting-Cain-Velasquez-199999"},"modified":"2026-02-03T16:05:26","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T16:05:26","slug":"daniel-cormier-changed-weight-classes-to-avoid-fighting-cain-velasquez","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/daniel-cormier-changed-weight-classes-to-avoid-fighting-cain-velasquez\/","title":{"rendered":"Daniel Cormier Changed Weight Classes to Avoid Fighting Cain Velasquez"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
<\/div>\n

Daniel
\nCormier<\/a> never wanted to fight Cain
\nVelasquez<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Velasquez (14-3) was on the cusp of
\nUFC<\/a> heavyweight title contention when Cormier joined him at the
\n
\nAmerican Kickboxing Academy<\/a> in San Jose, California, in 2009.
\nCormier saw Velasquez as the definition of a teammate and never
\nwanted to fight him. After joining the UFC in 2013, Cormier decided
\nto move down to light heavyweight after his sophomore outing in the
\npromotion. \u201cDC\u201d recently revealed that Velasquez never saw him as a
\nthreat when he joined AKA. When Cormier started rising up the UFC
\nrankings, he felt compelled to avoid Velasquez.<\/p>\n

\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u2018He Uplifted Me\u2019<\/h2>\n

\u201cI went to AKA to train. I walked in as an Olympian and a
\nheavyweight, and Cain
\nVelasquez<\/a> was the champion at the time,\u201d Cormier told the UFC.
\n\u201cHe never saw me as a potential opponent down the line, and because
\nof that, when it was time, when I worked myself up to No. 2 in the
\nworld, I said, I’m gonna go to 205 pounds because he set the
\nstandard for what a teammate should be. And so I felt like I needed
\nto go down to avoid [fighting him]. I didn\u2019t want to fight him as a
\nguy that was on the verge of a title fight. He uplifted me. And a
\nlot of times, a leader can do that for someone, and it really does
\nelevate them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Velasquez won the UFC heavyweight title against Brock
\nLesnar<\/a> in 2010 but failed to defend it against Junior dos
\nSantos<\/a>. Velasquez reclaimed the title in a rematch against dos
\nSantos in 2012 and defended it twice before losing it to Fabricio
\nWerdum<\/a>. After being sidelined with multiple injuries, Velasquez
\nreturned after a three-year hiatus in 2019 and retired following a
\nloss against Francis
\nNgannou<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Cormier (22-3) won the light heavyweight title in 2015
\nand defended it thrice before relinquishing it. Cormier also won
\nthe heavyweight title in 2018 and defended it against Derrick
\nLewis<\/a> before losing to Stipe
\nMiocic<\/a>. Cormier retired following a trilogy loss against Miocic
\nin 2020. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

Daniel
\nCormier<\/a> revealed he thought of moving down to 205 after
\nrealizing Cain
\nVelasquez<\/a> defined what a teammate should be \ud83e\udd4a\ud83d\udd25<\/p>\n

“I went to AKA to train. I walked in as an Olympian and a
\nheavyweight, and Cain
\nVelasquez<\/a> was the champion at the time. He never saw me as a
\npotential\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/FV5l0drQbA<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Red Corner MMA (@RedCorner_MMA)
\nFebruary 2, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/center> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Daniel Cormier never wanted to fight Cain Velasquez. Velasquez (14-3) was on the cusp of UFC heavyweight title contention when Cormier joined him at the American Kickboxing Academy in San Jose, California, in 2009. Cormier saw Velasquez as the definition of a teammate and never wanted to fight him. After joining the UFC in 2013, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":36604,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[150],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36603","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-martial-arts-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36603","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36603"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36603\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}