When Daniel Cormier announced his retirement from mixed martial arts following his loss at UFC 252 in August, no one was quite sure whether or not he was serious. A true competitor, the former double champ made his announcement backstage with little fanfare. He was clearly disappointed in the result of his trilogy bout with Stipte Miocic and some believed his loss would fuel a drive to return to the Octagon.
Speaking to ESPN's Ariel Helwani, Cormier reiterated his plans to retire. He repeated that he's only interested in fighting for titles at this stage of his career and, after suffering two back-to-back losses for the first time in his career, he doesn't believe he'll have the opportunity to compete for a belt.
"I'm not going to fight anymore," Cormier told Helwani. "I was talking to Joe Rogan after the fight and I told him my interest is fighting for championships and I can't imagine with a loss that I'll be fighting for a belt again... You got to understand when it's time and the reality is, part the reason I got hit with that right hand from Stipe is I'm older."
"You can't fight father time. And at 41-years-old I fought the heavyweight champion of the world three rounds to two with the idea that I wanted to win. I still believe I can beat Stipe Miocic," Cormier said, but added that time isn't in his favor.
"All these young guys, they just continue to improve and continue to train and get better. They stay younger. They stay a lot younger. Every day that goes by, my time just gets a little bit more in the rearview. I'm not going to be fighting anymore. I don't want to just fight," he confirmed. Helwani followed-up with another question, asking if there was any chance Cormier could come back to which the former double champ informed him that he was pulling out of the USADA testing pool.
Cormier added that he isn't sad with his decision to step away from professional mixed martial arts, although he did acknowledge that he'll miss the training camps and fights. "I feel like it's time," he said, affirmatively.
Cormier retires as one of the best mixed martial arts fighters of all-time. He held both the heavyweight and light heavyweight world championships simultaneously and was the first to defend titles in two different divisions. He ends his career with a 22-3 record, his only losses coming to Jon Jones (once) and Stipe Miocic (twice).