The only tears that will be shed in Daniel Cormier’s house tonight, will be tears of joy.
Daniel Cormier is once again the undisputed light heavyweight champion after finishing Volkan Oezdemir at UFC 220. It was a badly needed win for DC, especially considering what happened in his last outing.
The last time Cormier was seen inside the Octagon, he was balling his eyes out after being rendered unconscious by his arch-rival, Jon Jones. It was the first time the granite-chinned former heavyweight had been knocked out in his career.
That’s not what he wanted everyone’s last memory of DC to be. He needed to get back in there, do his thing and face those demons once again. He needed to experience the good times again and more importantly, he needed his family to experience them.
To illustrate the importance of this victory, Cormier recounted a tale from the dark days after UFC 214. He saved his most emotional Jon Jones story for last at the post-fight press conference.
“If not for anything else, to be able to look at my Mom and not see tears in her eyes an look at my wife and not see a look of confusion or wake up on Sunday morning an hear my son, who came to the fight for the first time.”
“You know, the whole Jones thing, it sucked. I lost a fight and I got beat, I got my ass kicked, I cried in the Octagon. I cried before I went to bed. But, you know when I cried the most was Sunday morning. I’m laying on my couch, my kids are in bed with their Mom and my boy rolls over and he taps his Mom because every time he’d never go to the fights, he wanted to know if his Dad won.”
Of course, Daddy didn’t win on that occasion. Cormier was forced to listen to his wife reveal the devastating result to their son. He hid his tear-filled eyes from the world when his son came to console him.
“Do you know what I heard at 7:30 in the morning in Anaheim? He tapped his Mom and he goes, ‘Mom, did Dad win?’ and she said, ‘No pop, he didn’t win this time.’ I was laying there, I could hear him. So I got my back to him and I’m crying and not long after I feel my boy behind me hugging me.”
“That was the hurtful thing. So for him to experience the other side of it is big for me. And my daughter and my family, it’s all family to me. I appreciate this, but I appreciate them being able to smile tonight instead of shedding tears.”
Fortunately for the Cormiers, Daddy was victorious in Boston. The post-fight celebrations are sure to be a family affair.
