Daniel Cormier outlined a multi-pronged technique to revive America’s dominance within the UFC, centered round recruiting school wrestlers to combined martial arts and giving younger wrestlers a style of Dagestani coaching strategies. His feedback come amid a serious demographic shift within the UFC, with no American male champion at the moment holding a title and fighters from the Caucasus area making up 37% of all champions regardless of solely making up 0.2% of the world’s inhabitants.
The previous two-division UFC champion and Olympic wrestler lately spoke on YallStreetTV about his mission to recruit American wrestlers to combined martial arts. Cormier praised the success of Khabib Nurmagomedov and Islam Makhachev and made it clear that the final word objective is for an American wrestler to regain the championship belt.
“American wrestlers aren’t as open to combating as we’d like them to be, however I’ve a plan. I am making an attempt to get American wrestlers into the fights,” Cormier mentioned. “I like these guys. I like Khabib and I like Islam. These guys are the very best. However I would like American wrestlers to be champions. I feel that is the one group that is going to take it again. It is Japanese European wrestlers who’re champions. There are only a few strikers. These are the wrestlers who’re champions. We’ve to get our wrestlers again into the world of combined martial arts.”
The query of management of Dagestan
The numbers inform a grim story. As of early 2026, there will probably be no American males’s champion in any division of the UFC. Fighters from the Caucasus area, particularly Dagestan, Chechnya, and Georgia, at the moment maintain roughly 37% of UFC titles, regardless of representing 0.2% of the world’s inhabitants. Islam Makhachev at the moment holds the welterweight title after stripping him of the light-weight belt, Khamzat Chimaev guidelines the middleweight division, and Georgian-born Ilya Topria reigns on the light-weight division.
Makhachev himself addressed the modifications in August 2025, pointing to cultural variations in motivation. “They only began signing extra gamers than ours, that is why,” Makhachev mentioned. “Our gamers stay for this sport. In America, for instance, they do not fear even when their recreation is unhealthy. Behind our gamers is their household, the entire metropolis, the entire republic. And he feels this accountability and takes full accountability to go on the market and win.”
Daniel Cormier Break It Down
Cormier pointed to 1 particular impediment that stops elite American wrestlers from making the transition to MMA: school wrestling salaries. On the UFC 322 weigh-in present, Cormier defined that when he competed at Oklahoma State College, his month-to-month wage elevated from $750 to $1,000. Prime school wrestlers at the moment earn between $100,000 and $400,000 a 12 months, with some highschool prospects signing six-figure contracts earlier than they even hit the school mats.
“I used to assume it was not possible that there wasn’t an American fighter within the high 10 pound-for-pound within the UFC, however now there actually is not one,” Cormier mentioned. “What’s hurting us is that schools have began paying their wrestlers. During the last 5 years, faculties have gotten actually good at paying their wrestlers. They do not need to go to matches anymore.”
He pointed to the historic foundations of America’s UFC dominance, corresponding to its wrestling roster, which incorporates Jon Jones, Kamaru Usman, Colby Covington, Chris Weidman, Henry Cejudo, and Cormier himself. Bo Knickal and Gable Stevenson are the one elite school wrestling wrestlers to transition to MMA up to now 5 years.
Cormier’s strategy consists of having his younger wrestlers practice in Dagestan. He organized for college students in Gilroy’s wrestling program to spend a month coaching in Russia with coaches from Khabib’s crew. This week, Cormier will ship eight center faculty wrestlers to Moscow and Dagestan for 3 weeks of coaching and competitors, together with a second spherical match towards Russia’s youth nationwide champions on the Ivan Yalygin Sports activities Palace.
All the wrestlers are All-People from the Tulsa Nationals and can compete towards Russian wrestlers hand-picked from numerous nationwide championship packages. Cormier believes publicity to Dagestan’s coaching strategies is important to creating the subsequent era of American fighters who can compete on the highest degree.
“After we began the match, I mentioned, ‘Hey, if these Russians from these areas begin coming in, it is going to be an issue, as a result of we all know how good they’re as wrestlers,'” Cormier beforehand instructed Joe Rogan. And it is the identical factor. ”
Cormier’s technique combines recruitment and training. He hopes to persuade America’s elite wrestlers that MMA continues to be a viable profession path regardless of improved school pay, whereas additionally educating younger wrestlers the coaching philosophy that has made Dagestani fighters dominant.
Beneath his teaching, the Gilroy Excessive Faculty wrestling crew completed runner-up within the California state championships two years in a row in simply three seasons. These wrestlers characterize the long-term funding Cormier believes American MMA wants.
