Daniel Cormier had to retire from MMA on a two-fight losing streak after he lost by decision to Stipe Miocic.
Yet, the lead up to the fight was a hard one for Cormier as he revealed he tested positive for the novel coronavirus just a month before his UFC 252 title fight.
“But over the weekend, I started feeling a little sick,” Cormier said to Yahoo Sports. “Things weren’t exactly … well, let me put it this way: I wasn’t sick, but I got a little tired and peaked. Monday comes, I go to practice and I spar and I worked out three times. I felt OK, but I was a little bit tired is, I guess, how I would put it. Now, let me go back for a second: The Wednesday prior, my readiness score was at 78, 79. The readiness score is what tells you how you are supposed to approach the day. When it’s low, it’s telling you to take a step back.
“I’ve been using it for months now because my body needs to know if I’m going in the right direction. … On Monday night, Tuesday morning, I wasn’t feeling so good. My resting heart rate had been 50 beats a minute. Now it was at 57. My body temperature had changed.”
He says a ring he wore helped tell me he had COVID-19. Although he did recover from the virus and opened up he had it, he makes it clear that is not the reason why he lost to Stipe Miocic.
“The ring didn’t tell me I had COVID,” Cormier said. “But the ring told me that something wasn’t right, and I used the information to make a decision to go see the doctor. I found out then that I had COVID, but the information I got from the ring allowed me to make the fight.
“This is not an excuse at all. Miocic won the fight and he fought beautifully. This is a thank you almost to Oura for allowing me to get to the fight. I might have just kept pushing and not known I had it. But I was able to take care of myself properly and then get back into training and compete for the heavyweight championship of the world. Without the ring, I don’t think that’s possible.”