Daniel Cormier thinks there’s an opportunity to restore order with American wrestlers in UFC.
The sport of MMA has had its share of wrestlers from the United States dominate the UFC title scene. The likes of Jon Jones, Henry Cejudo, Brock Lesnar, Matt Hughes, Mark Coleman, Rashad Evans, and Cormier himself had strong wrestling backgrounds and transitioned into MMA to become UFC champions.
Over the years, wrestlers from Eastern Europe have dominated at the highest levels of MMA. Cormier has built a strong bond with many of those fighters, but during an appearance on “Y’all Street,” he shared that his goal is to put America back on top (via MMAJunkie).
“The American wrestler isn’t as open to fighting as we need them to be, but I have a plan,” Cormier said in an interview with “Y’all Street.” “I’m getting American wrestlers to fight. I love those guys. I love Khabib (Nurmagomedov). I love Islam (Makhachev). Those guys are the best. But I want American wrestlers as champions.
“I think that’s the only group of people to go and get it back. It’s going to be the American wrestler, because guess what? It’s the Eastern European wrestler that’s the champion – very few strikers. They’re wrestlers that are champions. We’ve got to get our wrestlers back going into the sport of mixed martial arts.”
As it stands now, Kayla Harrison is the only American fighter holding a UFC championship. There was a time when just one American holding a UFC title sounded absurd, but it’s very much the reality in early 2026. Whether or not Cormier can achieve his goal of turning things back around remains to be seen.
Do you think Daniel Cormier can lead a resurgence of American wrestlers dominating the UFC title scene? Tell us in the comment section below.