Chapter 1: What are Daniel Cormier's reflections on his upbringing and early challenges?
It seems like just yesterday that the Two Guys Five Rings podcast was in Paris for the Olympics. And now we're heading to Milan for the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympic Winter Games. I'm Bowen Yang. And I'm Matt Rogers. You are the pan-Mediterranean icon. And I've always said that.
I think they really thought about us when they picked these cities out and said, you know what would be easiest for Matt and Bowen? For their hit podcast. Well, we are the Milan Cortina of America. What do you think you are? I think I'm more Cortina. Listen to Two Guys, Five Rings on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. If one of us wins, we all win.
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Have we ever seen someone in that sport that possessed the arsenal that he has? No. He's by far the most talented person that we've had in mixed martial arts. When he beat me, I was never better. That was the best you'd ever been. I'd never been better. Let's just say, for the sake of argument, you're three years apart, and now y'all move up and y'all buy the heavyweight.
Nah, he wasn't beating me in heavyweight.
All my life, been grindin' all my life Sacrifice, hustle, pay the price Wanna slice, got the roll of dice That's why, all my life, I be grindin' all my life All my life, been grindin' all my life Sacrifice, hustle, pay the price Wanna slice, got the roll of dice That's why, all my life, I be grindin' all my life
Hello, welcome to another episode of Club Shay Shay. I am your host, Shannon Sharpe. I'm also the proprietor of Club Shay Shay. Stopping by for conversation and a drink today is one of the most accomplished and decorated fighters in MMA history. He's one of the great mixed martial artists of all times, a warrior in the octagon.
a champion in every MMA organization he's competed in, a former UFC light heavyweight champion and heavyweight champion. He's the second fighter in UFC history to hold titles in two weight classes simultaneously. He's the first fighter in the UFC to win and defend both the light heavyweight and the heavyweight belts.
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Chapter 2: How did wrestling shape Daniel Cormier's fighting career?
A UFC Hall of Famer, a two-time Olympian, three-time Louisiana State Champion, an All-American freestyle wrestler, color commentator, world-class talent, a master on the microphone, a father, a husband, a legend. DC could stand for double champion, but in this case, it stands for Daniel Cormier.
My man. Say it again. When you say it all. When you say it all. When you say it all. Man, I'm going to tell you. When you say it all, it's something. Because... I grew up in Louisiana. I never could have imagined this life. I swear to God, I never could have imagined to hear all that, man. That was a ride.
Man, thanks for stopping by Club Shea Shea. Thank you, Shannon. Man, you know when you stop by Club Shea Shea, you know you got to have a taste of it. Yeah, yeah, that Shea bottle of potion. Yeah, man. Award winning.
Award winning. It's good? It's great. You know anything about cognac? No, I don't, but I'm going to try that. Oh, it smells strong, too.
See, swish it around.
Well, that's pretty good. It don't even really. Yeah, see, it ain't got that bite. It ain't got that bite. I was expecting a little bit. So my daddy drink like Southern Comfort and stuff like that. Yeah. Set your hair on fire.
Yeah.
No, no, no, no.
It's nice and smooth. Yeah, it's easy. See, we got to get you something. We got to get something for your old man. That's actually really good. Yeah. That's real good. Let me ask you, when you hear what I read off and you and I were talking before we started this interview and you was talking about growing up in Louisiana and the expectations of now you're in media.
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Chapter 3: What is the significance of Cormier's rivalry with Jon Jones?
You definitely cannot be one-dimensional today. Right. Back in the day, you remember Royce Gracie and those guys? I do. They would walk with the jujitsu chain. You had the jujitsu guy, and you had the big boxer. Right. One brother went out there with one glove on. His name was Art Jemison. He went out there with one glove. Can't do that.
The first two fights that were in Denver, Colorado, I saw him UFC. Really? Yeah. You went? I went. See, that's crazy. I was telling Dana the story. You actually went to watch it? I went to watch it. Because I, you know, just like, okay. And, you know, listening to it, what is it going to be? Well, we're going to see if a karate guy can beat this guy. And if a big guy can beat that guy.
And I'm like, okay, so what about the classes? They're like, ain't no weight class. I'm like, hold on. So a guy 125 can literally be fighting somebody 275? Like, yeah. I'm like, I don't think this is going to end well.
But that's what drew you in, right?
And then Royce wins, and he's 165-1. Yes, I'm looking at this little dude. I said, you about to get the brace beat off you. And he got his suit on and everything. Yeah. And I'm like, what's he doing? He's like literally trying to lay down. I'm like, I don't think this is going to end well. T.C., I don't know nothing about no Brazilian jiu-jitsu. And he's, like, laying down.
I'm like, what you doing?
You go down there, you're in trouble. Yeah, exactly. If you go down there with him, they were in trouble. I had, so my manager, still to this day, Dwayne, he calls me when I graduate college at Oklahoma State. He goes, hey, there's a sport. This is 2001.
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Chapter 4: How does Cormier view the impact of steroids in MMA?
He goes, there's a sport that's going to take over. It's going to be MMA. It's fighting. Have you ever been in a fight, like, in your life? Right. I started laughing at him. I said, bro, I grew up in Louisiana. I had to fight all the time. Right. And I think that, even though Shannon, like, we don't, I'm pretty sure you grew up down in the South.
Yes.
You had to fight at times, even though we are doing it correctly. Right. Somebody's trying to punch you. Yes. You're trying to punch someone. So when somebody taught me to punch like, OK, this is how it's done the right way. Correct. So it allowed for me to adjust to it much faster. I wasn't scared. Right. Like that's the biggest thing with wrestlers, especially being scared to get hit.
You cannot be scared.
Right. How is it that we're starting to see more athletes, D.C., dominate in their 40s? You saw a guy like yourself. You see a LeBron James. You saw a Tom Brady. You see guys that are playing at extreme. Because normally, guys, they're gone. By the time they get to the mid-30s, they're gone, especially in your sport, even in football. Guys ain't playing that long.
And every once in a while, you'll get a Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. But he's a big guy, and he doesn't need to get up and down the court. Yep. But to see Tom play until he's, what, 43, 44 years of age, yourself fighting. At 41, yeah. LeBron still being able to play at the level he's playing at. Why do you think guys have been able to do things to this level? much longer.
Because of the access to recovery, I think athletes are smarter today. Those guys are very young. So when we're younger, like you're in your 20s, you're in your 30s, you're Superman. You go to sleep, you jump out of bed, you go to train. Every day. But then as you start to get older, the body starts to ache a little more. But those guys in their 20s and 30s are not
They're not rejecting the body anymore. They're saying at 25, while I may feel great, I know there are problems underlying for me that I need to address, make sure that I'm straight. And I think that's why they're playing so long. But they're playing at an elite level. I remember when Peyton Manning went to Denver. He said it himself. He goes, I can't throw the ball down the field.
He goes, but I will manage a game. Every now and again, I'll give you one that goes a little deeper. Right. He goes, but I'm managing the game because at the point we were still kind of living in that that world where you just age and then you age out. And even Aaron Rodgers right now. Right. We'll see what happens this year.
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Chapter 5: What personal challenges did Daniel Cormier face during his career?
But look at me. I'm not on steroids. But you're hitting the numbers. I said that publicly one time way back in the day. The next time they came to my house at 4 o'clock in the afternoon. So they were watching. But because they had gotten repetitive, they heard fighters doing it. One guy popped for something, Shannon. They got him at 10 p.m.
They said if they would have let him go to bed and wake up the next morning, they could have tested him. It would have been gone. 12 hours?
Chapter 6: How did Daniel Cormier's rivalry with Jon Jones impact his career?
12 hours for that to get out of the system. It's crazy the level of stuff they have out there.
Well, it's just like anything. I mean, they're going to come up with something that's in and out. They got these peptides now. This is good. See? And you didn't think it was going to be. You thought you were going to have all that bite to it. I don't drink. No, it don't have any bite. I don't really drink. It don't have any bite.
But the viral video of you finding out that he tested positive and you were just so brokenhearted. Hard broken.
It's like losing your first girlfriend.
Chapter 7: What are Daniel Cormier's thoughts on current MMA fighters?
I had a girlfriend growing up, and me and her, we went crazy, right? You have sex for the first time. It is all you want to do. I'm checking myself out of school, man, to go meet this girl. She's checking herself out of school. She's up in the middle of the night on the phone because her mom doesn't let her use the phone. Our parents took us together. They found out what we were doing.
They sat us in the front yard and told us we could not see each other anymore. That's what it felt like. Let me tell you something.
Chapter 8: How does Daniel Cormier view the legacy of fighters like Khabib and Conor McGregor?
I'm on the city bus getting over that. I'm in my 35 cents. I'm going to her house. Who doesn't want to go to work? And you said it was like that. I will sign a waiver. I want to fight him. Heartbroken because I know how hard I had worked. Again, it was just like Anaheim. I worked so hard to prepare myself. We are when you're fighting. That's your business partner.
Imagine you're playing the Kansas City Chiefs. And on Sunday, they just don't show up. We don't practice all week. They just don't show up. Right. But your game check is tied to them showing up. Yes. Now you're like, hey, man, you're hurting my business. I know what the first check looked like when we fought. Right. I want that second check. And then hopefully we go a third time.
You know what I'm saying? It's like that was the hurt of it. And then it was UFC 200. Man, we were on Good Morning America together. It was big. And I was like, man, we need a... I was heartbroken because it's not just me. It was my entire team that worked so hard to make sure I was prepared to fight that night. So, yeah, I said, I'll sign whatever I need to. But Dana was like, come on.
Dana was like, you can't do that. You could tell he didn't want to tell me that. You could tell he was like, can I talk to you? I was like, what do you need? I was staying at the MGM signature because I always stayed at that small little one on the side.
Right.
He goes, can you come over to the arena right now? And I was like, why? I was like, it's 2 in the afternoon. He goes, I want you to, I have to talk to you about something really important. So I walk over with my team, and he's in the back in that hallway, and he tells me. And he goes, we have to talk to the media. I was like, damn. Everything's in place, and I didn't know.
I was still just going about my day like I was going to go cut weight to make for the fight. And he was like, you have to address the media. It's horrible. I was up there crying and shit. Yeah, I know. People were like, man, DZ, what you crying for? DZ crying. Ring, ring, ring, ring, ring.
Seems like just yesterday that the Two Guys Five Rings podcast was in Paris for the Olympics. And now we're heading to Milan for the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympic Winter Games. I'm Bowen Yang. And I'm Matt Rogers. And we'll join athletes from 93 countries as Two Guys, Five Rings hits the slopes of the Italian Alps for the 2026 Milan-Cortina Olympic Winter Games.
Let us be your VIP pass for 116 events across 16 sports on one of the most beautiful stages in the world. It's the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympic Winter Games. Watch and listen to every moment of the Winter Olympics February 6th through the 22nd on NBC and Peacock and on the iHeartRadio app. And listen to Two Guys, Five Rings on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
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