{"id":70529,"date":"2025-08-15T15:40:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-15T15:40:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/70529\/"},"modified":"2025-08-15T15:40:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-15T15:40:07","slug":"daniel-cormier-claims-ufc-319-star-wouldve-won-olympic-gold-medal-if-he-didnt-pursue-mma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/70529\/","title":{"rendered":"Daniel Cormier claims UFC 319 star would\u2019ve won Olympic gold medal if he didn\u2019t pursue MMA"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Daniel Cormier believes the UFC\u2019s newest star could\u2019ve been an Olympic champion.<\/p>\n

\u2018DC\u2019 will be in the broadcast booth with Joe Rogan<\/a> and Jon Anik<\/a> at UFC 319<\/a> on Saturday night. <\/p>\n

Everyone is excited about the middleweight title fight between Dricus du Plessis and Khamzat Chimaev<\/a>, which will headline at Chicago\u2019s United Center this weekend. <\/p>\n

However, Daniel Cormier<\/a> is also interested in seeing a man who\u2019ll make his debut in the co-main event. <\/p>\n

\"UFCPhoto by Mike Roach\/Zuffa LLCDaniel Cormier excited about Aaron Pico\u2019s UFC debut<\/p>\n

Former Bellator contender Aaron Pico will make his UFC debut<\/a> against Lerone Murphy<\/a> this weekend. <\/p>\n

The 28-year-old was a teenage prodigy in boxing and wrestling before making his MMA debut<\/a> in June 2017. <\/p>\n

Cormier believes Pico would\u2019ve made it to the very top if he had stuck with his wrestling. <\/p>\n

The 13-4 MMA star was on the cusp of making the US Olympic team when he was still in school. <\/p>\n

\u201cAaron Pico, if this guy wasn\u2019t fighting right now, I believe he\u2019d be Olympic champion,\u201d Cormier said during the UFC 319 Weigh-In Show. <\/p>\n

\u201cWrestled in the Olympic trials final as a high school kid. Lost in the final. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s unbelievable what he\u2019s done as an athlete. This guy has a ton of potential.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aaron Pico upsets Alexander Volkanovski<\/p>\n

Aaron Pico has put himself in the crosshairs of the UFC featherweight champion before his debut. <\/p>\n

The UFC 319 newcomer caused a rare display of trash talk from Alexander Volkanovski<\/a> earlier this week.<\/p>\n

Pico backed himself to beat Volkanovski, who issued a ruthless response to the plucky fight prediction.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve gotta think that. That is perfectly fine,\u201d he said. \u201cEveryone has a puncher\u2019s chance.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is an all-American wrestler, but I\u2019ll tell you right now, what\u2019s the bet if we were to wrestle, I\u2019d embarrass him there anyway. A lot of people want to be like, \u2018I did this, I did that,\u2019 like I haven\u2019t faced them guys in the gym. I\u2019ve faced really good wrestlers much heavier than him, and trust me, I do alright.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s gotta have that confidence, right?\u201d Volkanovski continued. \u201cI am not gonna really take it seriously until he goes and shows me something. You\u2019ve done stuff in your other promotions\u2026come over here, do it here, and alright, I\u2019ll look into it more.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s only got a puncher\u2019s chance, I\u2019ll leave it at that. \u2026 I reckon I would honestly \u2014 it excites me because I reckon I\u2019d crumble him in the wrestling department\u2026I mop the floor with him.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"DanielPhoto by Chris Unger\/Zuffa LLC <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Daniel Cormier believes the UFC\u2019s newest star could\u2019ve been an Olympic champion. \u2018DC\u2019 will be in the broadcast…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":70530,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[4972,64,63,797,786,785,85,787,37546],"class_list":{"0":"post-70529","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mma","8":"tag-aaron-pico","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-daniel-cormier","12":"tag-fighting","13":"tag-mma","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-ufc","16":"tag-ufc-319"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70529","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70529"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70529\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}