(Photo via dc_mma)
Besides his uncanny ability to ingratiate himself into the lives of elite MMA fighters, I’ll give Steven Seagal credit for something else — the guy knows how to pick winners. During an appearance at this weekend’s Fighters Only World MMA Awards in Las Vegas, the action star set his sights on his next pet project, telling MMAWeekly:
“If I had to choose anybody today [as ‘Fighter of the Year’] I would probably pick Daniel Cormier because I think he is the best out of that lot…He’s the guy and I’m maybe going to be working with him a little bit, we’ll see. I think that he’s not the kind of person that everybody knows about, yet he’s sort of a sleeper, you know? I think that’s going to be really interesting. I’m not going to say any more than that. I’ll just say he’s a friend of mine, that’s all.”
The photo you see above was tweeted out by Cormier yesterday, accompanied by the caption “With sensei seagal ufc 148.” So why would Cormier release a random six-month-old photo of himself and Seagal, the day after his victory at Strikeforce’s final event? And why would he call Seagal “sensei”? No. Oh God, no. This isn’t happening.
Regardless of who Cormier fights in his UFC debut, prepare to see Seagal — decked out in his traditional bulletproof kimono — giving self-satisfied interviews to Ariel Helwani about the secret techniques that he’s passing on to his new student, Emelianegro-san. The master just hooked another big fish. Deal with it.