Daniel Cormier eventually called Brock Lesnar into the UFC cage, but years earlier, he apparently preferred watching his teammate handle that assignment. Cain Velasquez says Cormier privately admitted he had no interest in facing Lesnar around the time of their 2010 heavyweight title fight. The key detail? This was long before Cormier and Lesnar started selling a showdown of their own.
Speaking on The Shawn Ryan Show, Velasquez recalled the reaction to his UFC 121 matchup with Lesnar. His coaches believed they had a plan to beat the champion. According to Velasquez, Cormier was looking at the same opponent and reaching a different conclusion.
“He’s a freak of an athlete,” Velasquez said. “My coaches and I knew that we had the recipe, but I could see everyone else.” He then recalled Cormier’s admission: “Man, when you fought him, I didn’t tell you, but I was just like, I don’t want to be fighting that guy.” That is Velasquez recounting a private conversation, rather than Cormier announcing he rejected a fight. The timing also changes the story: the comment concerns Lesnar during Velasquez’s title challenge, not the proposed Cormier matchup that emerged eight years later.
Daniel Cormier Didn’t Want Brock Lesnar Fight Back Then, Cain Velasquez Explains
Velasquez understood why Lesnar made people nervous. He pointed to his wrestling background, size and power, while joking about the difference between their physiques. “He was pure muscle, that’s not me,” he said. Winning the exchanges was one thing; getting caught during them was another. “Then standing in front of him, this is a massive dude right here,” Velasquez recalled (H/t BloodyElbow)
“Even though he doesn’t like the exchange, he has power. So you get hit with that, it’s not going to be good. You’ve still got to be cautious everywhere.” The size gap was real. Velasquez conceded more than 20 pounds to the 265-pound champion at UFC 121 in Anaheim on October 23, 2010. He survived Lesnar’s opening attack, turned the fight around and finished him with strikes at 4:12 of the first round, taking the heavyweight championship.
By July 7, 2018, Cormier was doing the inviting. After knocking out Stipe Miocic at UFC 226 to become heavyweight champion while holding the light heavyweight belt, he called Lesnar into the Octagon. Lesnar shoved him, and the pair traded insults with a potential title fight on the table.
“Push me now, [and] you’re going to sleep later,” Cormier shouted. UFC president Dana White confirmed afterward that he wanted Lesnar to challenge for Cormier’s championship.
Whatever Cormier had thought in 2010, his public position by then left little room for confusion. The fight never happened. On April 30, 2019, White said Lesnar had told him he was finished with MMA: “He’s done, he’s retired.” The UFC instead moved toward a Cormier-Miocic rematch.
Daniel Cormier Says WWE’s Money Took Brock Lesnar Fight Off the Table
By the time a Lesnar fight became a possibility in 2018, Cormier was thinking about the payday. During a Q&A, he recalled getting a call from Lesnar while attending his daughter’s gymnastics event. According to Cormier, Lesnar had a proposition: beat Stipe Miocic, and the two could cash in together.
“You knock him out, it’s going to be Christmas early for your family because we’re going to fight,” Cormier recalled Lesnar telling him. Cormier did his part at UFC 226, stopping Miocic in the first round. But the Christmas bonus never arrived. “It didn’t happen because the WWE gave him too much money, and he made the right choice,” Cormier said. “He’s done really well for himself. I’m proud of him.”
Cormier offered a similar explanation during an appearance on Club Shay Shay with Shannon Sharpe, calling Lesnar “my golden goose.” He also made clear that his confidence had moved well beyond the hesitation Velasquez described from 2010. “It was one of the safest fights I could have had. It’s just the truth,” Cormier said. His reasoning came down to wrestling and conditioning.
Cormier believed Lesnar would need takedowns to beat him, and that his own wrestling would make those attempts expensive. “If he shoots on me, I’m going to make it so hard for him to get that takedown that by the time he gets it, he’s exhausted,” he explained. That remained Cormier’s assessment of a fight they never got to settle.
