It turns out Daniel Cormier had to deal with some adversity leading up to his trilogy fight with Stipe Miocic at UFC 252 last month.
Cormier would go on to suffer a unanimous decision defeat to Miocic in their heavyweight title bout and officially retire from mixed martial arts soon after.
However, there was a chance he may not have even made the fight — if not for the Oura Ring. The UFC will partner up with Oura Health on Tuesday with the Oura Ring being a smart ring that tracks health data and tells users when it is optimal to train hard or take a break.
Cormier Tested Positive For COVID-19 A Month Before UFC 252
Cormier was using the Oura Ring leading up to the fight and despite testing negative for COVID-19 when an American Kickboxing Academy teammate tested positive in early July, the product let him know soon after that something was up when he wasn’t feeling himself after training one day.
“…But over the weekend, I started feeling a little sick,” Cormier told Yahoo Sports. “Things weren’t exactly … well, let me put it this way: I wasn’t sick, but I got a little tired and peaked. Monday comes, I go to practice and I spar and I worked out three times. I felt OK, but I was a little bit tired is, I guess, how I would put it. Now, let me go back for a second: The Wednesday prior, my readiness score was at 78, 79. The readiness score is what tells you how you are supposed to approach the day. When it’s low, it’s telling you to take a step back.
“I’ve been using it for months now because my body needs to know if I’m going in the right direction. … On Monday night, Tuesday morning, I wasn’t feeling so good. My resting heart rate had been 50 beats a minute. Now it was at 57. My body temperature had changed.”
On July 8, Cormier’s readiness score dropped down to 48. Despite that, he went to practice and sparred two rounds. However, he told head coach Javier Mendez he wasn’t feeling good and later went to the doctor where he learned he had tested positive for COVID-19.
However, “DC” is not using that as an excuse for his defeat to Miocic.
“The ring didn’t tell me I had COVID,” Cormier added. “But the ring told me that something wasn’t right, and I used the information to make a decision to go see the doctor. I found out then that I had COVID, but the information I got from the ring allowed me to make the fight.
“This is not an excuse at all. Miocic won the fight and he fought beautifully. This is a thank you almost to Oura for allowing me to get to the fight. I might have just kept pushing and not known I had it. But I was able to take care of myself properly and then get back into training and compete for the heavyweight championship of the world. Without the ring, I don’t think that’s possible.”
Cormier made a promotional post about the Oura Ring on Tuesday as well.
