Former UFC champion Daniel Cormier believes fighters should know when to walk away sooner to avoid a painful exit.
His statement came after his longtime friend, Luke Rockhold, suffered a brutal KO loss to Darren Till at Misfits Boxing 22. Watching Rockhold demolished in the ring didn’t sit well with Cormier, who said it shouldn’t be the way legends go out and admitted it was depressing to watch.
“For me, what makes me sad is watching guys that have had those careers, go and fight these fights that really mean nothing,” Cormier said on his YouTube channel. “I guess it’s for money, but it sucks when you see a guy that was a champion all of a sudden almost say, ‘To hell with the legacy, I’m just going to go get paid.’
“Something has got to change in that regard because, bro, I hated it. He got knocked out so bad. And then, you can tell when it doesn’t matter so much, because right afterward, they’re together in a picture at a bar. You could just tell that it doesn’t matter. It just doesn’t matter to him that he got knocked out, and it sucks.”
The former UFC star also criticized how past champions are being used as products by other organizations. He argued that there should be rules and authorities to step in and tell fighters when to quit.
“When you are a champion, or a person that wore the UFC title, there are so many ways for you to make money,” Cormier said on his Youtube Channel. “There are ways to do it without stepping inside a boxing ring, without stepping inside a bare-knuckle boxing fight. So crazy. Frankie Edgar is about to do it. Frankie Edgar is about to fight in bare-knuckle boxing. I like Frankie. I don’t know that that’s the greatest idea. So hopefully someone close to him goes, ‘Frankie, I don’t know if this is the fight or this is the move.’
“Because ultimately, we are watching great champions, from a long time past, and from a long history of great champions, go out there and fight in a way that’s not great for them, and I don’t love the visuals. They say all great champions go out on their back, but they don’t need to go out like that.
“Find alternatives, guys. You don’t have to fight forever. We have our time, and then the time passes. They always say Father Time is undefeated. That’s never been proved more true than with what we’re seeing lately.”
Cormier’s words serve as a reminder that protecting one’s health and legacy matters more than chasing short-term paydays, a lesson today’s fighters would be wise to remember.
