Sherdog’s Top 10: Greatest Pound-for-Pound Men

8. Daniel Cormier

Cormier had more total fights at heavyweight, but his actual prime was spent at light heavyweight. At the former weight class, even when way past his prime physically, Cormier knocked out Miocic in Round 1, and in his 40s, dominated the first two and a half rounds of the rematch before gassing out and losing, and running on pure fumes, barely lost 48-47 in the rubber match. I think a prime Cormier beats Miocic three times out of three, and likely convincingly. Yet, these were also Cormier's only losses at heavyweight. He dominated Derrick Lewis en route to a Round 2 stoppage, won an easy decision over a prime Josh Barnett, with an iconic slam to the canvas, stopped a prime Antonio Silva in the first round and destroyed only marginally past-their-prime versions of Frank Mir, Roy Nelson and Jeff Monson. At light heavyweight, he was undefeated with the exception of one man, Jon Jones, whom we will see later on. Cormier vanquished Alexander Gustafsson—which should not have been a split decision—Dan Henderson, Anderson Silva and Volkan Oezdemir. Unlike Jones, he holds two stoppage victories over the late, incredibly dangerous, Anthony Johnson. His amazing wrestling and brutal top control, where he could either pound out or submit an opponent, and shockingly good cardio were too much for most opponents, but Cormier's striking got better and better over his career, evolving into a very dangerous weapon as well. Beyond this, Cormier was one of the smartest fighters the sport has ever seen, executing intricate game plans perfectly and allowing him to beat many opponents who had athletic or physical advantages over him. He is a very worthy inclusion in the list of the greatest fighters ever.

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