UFC Hall of Famer Daniel Cormier and his ESPN colleague Ryan Clark recently engaged in a friendly discussion regarding their perspectives on the welterweight division’s Mount Rushmore. While the two shared a general consensus, there were subtle differences in their viewpoints.
There are a slew of welterweights in UFC history who made their mark. When it comes to a Mount Rushmore for the division, however, some feel it’s a bit easy to decide than other divisions. Cormier even pointed out why that may be the case during an episode of ESPN’s “DC & RC” show. Cormier pointed out that the UFC’s welterweight division has had more long reigning champions, so picking out the all-time greats isn’t a difficult task.
10 years ago today, Daniel Cormier competed in his final fight before making the jump to the UFC pic.twitter.com/PIb8BlatSN
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Daniel Cormier: UFC Welterweight Mount Rushmore
Cormier and Clark only disagreed on one name in the UFC welterweight Mount Rushmore. While Clark has Robbie Lawler on his all-time list, Cormier chooses Tyron Woodley because of the circumstances surrounding his 170-pound title reign. Here are the rest of the names Daniel Cormier included in his UFC welterweight Mount Rushmore.
“I got Georges St-Pierre at the head,” Cormier said. “He’s the George Washington. Then I have Matt Hughes, then I have Kamaru Usman, and I have Tyron Woodley. I went Tyron Woodley, RC. I get it, him and Robbie would seem to have very similar resumes, but you gotta remember when Tyron was the champion, the way he beat Robbie to become the champion, the way he beat Darren Till, the way he defended that belt on so many occasions when he was legitimately one of the harder champions to work with. So, he got no favors. Tyron Woodley was actually fighting only the very best guys, and he complained about it openly how the UFC didn’t always treat him fairly. So, he was doing that and defending that belt in circumstances that weren’t ideal.”
Robbie Lawler’s Swan Song
Cormier went on to say that Lawler’s story is being the mid-tier Strikeforce fighter who returned to the UFC and proved everyone wrong. Lawler is set to have the final pro MMA bout of his career at UFC 290 on July 8 against Niko Price.
