Strikeforce heavyweight Daniel Cormer (6-0) keeps one thing in mind every time he steps into the cage, that the opponent across from him is not UFC heavyweight champ Cain Velasquez.
Cormier next bout will take place this Friday on the televised portion of the Strikeforce Challengers show, he’ll square off against Devin Cole at the Nashville event.
The former Olympic wrestler is undefeated in six professional bouts, earning five of those victories in 2010.
He didn’t always feel so confident and feels he’s a work in progress, ever improving under the tutelage of his fellow American Kickboxing Academy coaches and fighters. One of his regular sparring partners happens to be Velasquez, and for Cormier, he feels that by training with the UFC heavyweight champ all he can do is improve.
“I’ve got to get better learning across the cage from Cain,. I’ve got to find confidence from that to know I can get in there with anybody. When I go into the cage now, I’m thinking, ‘OK, this isn’t Cain.’ I go in there every day and I spar with Cain Velasquez. This guy isn’t Cain. I find comfort in that, honestly. This guy is the UFC champion. He’s the No. 1 heavyweight in the world. So I think to myself, ‘I’m not fighting him, so why should I lose?’ That’s like my thing. It’s what I tell myself before I go fight. ‘This ain’t Cain.’”
“…That’s the thing about Strikeforce, it’s really a separation between these elite-level guys and then us, the guys that are coming up. There’s kind of no gatekeepers to go through to get to that level. I think I’m getting on the cusp of that where I’m one, maybe two fights away from being in the thick of it, fighting against what I believe are some of the best heavyweights in the world.
HT: MMAFighting.com