Prior to UFC 226, we hadn’t seen Daniel Cormier officially weigh-in heavier than 206 lbs in nearly five years.
The last time Daniel Cormier fought at heavyweight before Sunday morning was against Roy Nelson in 2013. He weighed 224 lbs that night, the lightest he had ever been as a professional fighter up until that point.
DC’s weight fluctuated quite a bit when he was rising up through the heavyweight ranks. He was 250.2 lbs for his professional debut and ranged from 240.7 lbs to 230 lbs during his time in Strikeforce and the UFC before he started the process of dropping down against ‘Big Country.’ So, one of the questions surrounding UFC 226’s main event was how heavy was Cormier going to be against Stipe Miocic?
In the build-up to the super fight, Cormier gave his predicted weight on the Anik and Florian Show.
“I know I’ll be between 230 and 235 lbs as a heavyweight. But you never know how the weight comes down when you start training.”
Kenny Florian jokingly told his co-host not to believe a word that came out of DC’s mouth. He boldly predicted that he would tip the scales somewhere in the 250-265 lb range.
They were both wrong.
No arguing with that #UFC226 https://t.co/dfEL2ecC6B
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) July 9, 2018
The heavier they are, the harder they hit
Cormier weighed in at 246 lbs for UFC 226, four pounds heavier than Miocic. He was actually the third heaviest fighter on the card after Francis Ngannou and Derrick Lewis who weighed 253 lbs and 264.5 lbs respectively. Top heavyweight title contender Alexander Volkov, who was waiting in the wings on standby for the main event, was 236 lbs.
After knocking out Miocic to become the second champ champ in the UFC’s history, Cormier explained why he was so heavy on ESPN’s UFC 226 post-fight show. He initially planned on shedding some poundage, but the plans changed when he noticed the effect the extra weight was having in training.
“The reason I stayed up, Chael, is because I was knocking guys down in practice. I was hitting guys and they were falling. With my hands! And I was like, ‘Wow, I haven’t done this for a very long time.”
“So Bob Cook and Javier Mendez said, ‘Let’s just stay heavy. You’re carrying your power, you’re fast, you’re doing great.’ They were like, ‘Stay where you are. do not lose any more weight.'”
Well, you can’t fault the results. Cormier’s power at heavyweight makes him a force to be reckoned with. He’ll need that extra weight when he takes on former champion Brock Lesnar next.
