Daniel Cormier and Patrick Cummins. Two old friends reunited!
Not quite.
Daniel Cormier is an undefeated former top ten heavyweight contender who is moving down to 205 pounds for the first time in his career tonight. Patrick Cummins is a last-minute replacement for the injured "Sugar" Rashad Evans. He is also a former training partner and wrestling opponent of Daniel Cormier's.
According to Cummins, he used to make Cormier cry in training. And when Patrick and Daniel were interviewed on television, Daniel did not deny it. Instead, he explained that back when they trained together, the entire training camp was centered around him. He was preparing for the Olympics. Consequently, they tortured him in practice, making him wrestle one guy after another until he couldn't move. His opponents were all rested. He, obviously, was not. But more importantly than the physical fatigue, Daniel was dealing with a most heart-wrenching personal matter.
He lost a child.
As a father of two, I would forgive almost any behavior from a man who had just suffered the death of his child. He cried while getting beat on in the gym? So what!?! I'm surprised he wasn't crying while simply walking to the gym.
That Patrick would use Daniel's grief as a marketing tool to get noticed by the UFC is pretty rotten. It worked, so mission accomplished, Pat, Ol' Boy. Let me explain. Just a few weeks ago, Patrick Cummins was working at a coffee shop. That's right. A coffee shop. Being a former felon somewhat limits one's career choices. His mixed martial arts career has been good, but there hasn't been much of it. As a two-time all american wrestler, he has found it hard to get fights. Not many guys want to face him. So he has only fought four times as a professional, and he has won all four times. And he has been telling anyone who will listen that he used to beat the crap out of top ten heavyweight, Daniel Cormier.
Someone with connections to UFC President, Dana White, listened to him. And when Rashad Evans had to pull out of his fight with Cormier at the last minute, Dana White said, "Get that kid on the phone."
So Patrick's manager called the coffee shop, hoping to let Patrick speak with Dana--the most powerful man in mixed martial arts, the Godfather of the sport. But Patrick's coffee shop boss wouldn't let him take the call. In fact, he said, "Take that call and you're fired."
Patrick took the call.
And got a promotion. Tonight, he will have a chance to back up all his smack talk. And he will probably make half a year's coffee shop salary or more when he does it.
But when it's over, I wonder if he'll think it was worth it? Daniel Cormier is legit. He trains every day with the baddest man on the planet, Cain Velasquez. And from what we're told, he holds his own. As a professional, he has wins over some top ten fighters like Antonio "Big Foot" Silva, Roy "Big Country" Nelson, and former UFC champion, Josh Barnett. He also beat up Frank Mir.
Plus, he's angry. For the first time, he has had to make a weight cut down to 205 pounds. Fighters are notoriously cranky when they cut weight. Can you imagine how cranky a guy is if he's doing it for the first time? And he had considered Patrick Cummins a friendly acquaintance, if not an actual friend. But this friend broke one of the golden rules and blabbed about what happened in the gym. Every fighter knows that the gym is like Las Vegas. What happens there, stays there. To tell others what you did to a training partner in sparring is serious weak sauce. Daniel now has genuine dislike for his old training partner. And Daniel is scary enough when he likes his opponents.
I predict a bad night for Patrick Cummins. Daniel will put him to sleep with strikes in the second round.
Daniel Cormier TKO Patrick Cummins Round 2
Until next time.
No comments:
Post a Comment