UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Daniel Cormier was forced to pull out of a title defense against Anthony Johnson at UFC 206, but Cormier is adamant that it was not the American Kickboxing Academy’s fault that he (or others) have been injured.
"It's not Javier's fault,” Cormier said on The MMA Hour. “This isn't college. We're not high-school athletes. Javier can tell me not to spar and I'll be like, ‘Yeah sure, Jav.' then I'll go spar. I’ll do what I’ll do. We’re adults. I’m the reason I got hurt. I don’t know why. It wasn’t Javier Mendez or Bob Cook,” he said. “The decisions are mine. If I got hurt, it was my fault. People always get confused. They talk about coaches. The reality is, these coaches and managers that everybody thinks are in so much control, they work for us. They're our employees.”
Cormier actually changed up his training routine after a bout against former UFC Middleweight Champion Anderson Silva at UFC 200.
"For me, I felt a little bit off," he said. "I felt like I didn't do as much as I needed to do and it really messed with me mentally. Now, I spar a lot, and I run a lot, and I train a lot. It's the only way that I feel secure in my own mind. The biggest part of competition if knowing that I’ve done enough to fight. It’s scary if it’s the other way. When I fought Anderson Silva, I was worried. Like, man did I run enough? Did I put enough miles in? Did I spar enough rounds? And you don't want to be questioning yourself. That was supposed to be Jon Jones. I actually had changed up my training situation, scared to get hurt, before I was going fight Jon Jones. It was a huge mistake and I didn't like it. I’m going to go back to doing what I do. I’m going to train as hard as I can and I will hope I can make it to these fights man.”
Cormier is next expected to return to action for several months, opponent Anthony Johnson has stated that he will wait for the fight with Cormier.
