Daniel Cormier has outlined a multi-pronged technique to revive American dominance in UFC, centered on recruiting collegiate wrestlers into MMA and exposing younger wrestlers to Dagestani coaching strategies. His feedback come amid a major shift in UFC demographics, with no American male champions presently holding titles and fighters from the Caucasus area comprising 37% of all champions regardless of representing 0.2% of the world’s inhabitants.
The previous two-division UFC champion and Olympic wrestler spoke not too long ago through YallStreetTV about his mission to recruit American wrestlers into combined martial arts. Cormier praised the success of Khabib Nurmagomedov and Islam Makhachev whereas making clear his final purpose is to see American wrestlers reclaim championship belts.
“American wrestlers aren’t as open to preventing as we want them to be. However I’ve a plan. I’m getting American wrestlers into preventing,” Cormier stated. “I like these guys – I like Khabib, I like Islam. These guys are the perfect. However I would like American wrestlers as champions. I believe that’s the one group of individuals to go and get it again. It’s the Japanese European wrestlers who’re champions – only a few strikers. They’re wrestlers who’re champions. We’ve acquired to get our wrestlers again going into the game of combined martial arts.”
The Dagestan Dominance Downside
The numbers inform a stark story. As of early 2026, there are not any American male champions throughout any UFC division. Fighters from the Caucasus region, particularly Dagestan, Chechnya, and Georgia, now hold roughly 37% of UFC titles regardless of representing 0.2% of the worldwide inhabitants. Islam Makhachev presently holds the welterweight championship after vacating his light-weight belt, Khamzat Chimaev controls the middleweight division, and Georgian-born Ilia Topuria reigns at light-weight.
Makhachev himself addressed the shift in August 2025, pointing to cultural variations in motivation. “They simply began signing extra of our guys, that’s the rationale,” Makhachev stated. “Our guys stay for this sport. Within the USA, for instance, they don’t fear even when they competed unhealthy. Behind our guys there’s a household, the entire metropolis, the entire Republic. And he feels this duty, and goes out with full duty and wins.”
Daniel Cormier Breaks It Down
Cormier has recognized a particular impediment stopping elite American wrestlers from transitioning to MMA: school wrestling salaries. Talking through the UFC 322 weigh-in present, Cormier defined that when he competed at Oklahoma State, his month-to-month stipend was raised from $750 to $1,000. As we speak, prime collegiate wrestlers earn between $100,000 and $400,000 yearly, with some highschool prospects commanding six-figure offers earlier than stepping onto a university mat.
“I used to suppose it was unattainable that there could be no American fighters within the UFC pound-for-pound prime 10. However now there actually isn’t a single one,” Cormier stated. “What’s killing us is that faculties began paying wrestlers. Within the final 5 years they’ve began paying very well. They don’t must go struggle anymore.”
He pointed to the historic basis of American UFC dominance, which reads like a wrestling roster: Jon Jones, Kamaru Usman, Colby Covington, Chris Weidman, Henry Cejudo, and Cormier himself. Up to now 5 years, solely Bo Nickal and Gable Steveson have made the transition from elite collegiate wrestling to MMA.
Cormier’s strategy consists of sending his personal youth wrestlers to coach in Dagestan. He organized for college kids from his Gilroy wrestling program to spend a month coaching in Russia alongside coaches from Khabib’s workforce. This week, Cormier is sending eight center college wrestlers to Moscow and Dagestan for 3 weeks of coaching and competitors, together with a twin meet towards Russian youth nationwide champions on the Ivan Yarygin Sports activities Palace.
The wrestlers, all All-Individuals from Tulsa Nationals, will face Russian counterparts hand-selected from numerous nationwide championship applications. Cormier views this publicity to Dagestani coaching strategies as important for growing the subsequent technology of American fighters who can compete on the highest degree.
After I began preventing I stated, man, when these Russian dudes from these areas begin to come, it’s going to be an issue as a result of you understand how good they have been as wrestlers,” Cormier beforehand advised Joe Rogan. “What’s going to occur when these guys come into preventing? And it’s the identical factor.”
Cormier’s technique combines recruitment with training. He needs to persuade elite American wrestlers that MMA stays a viable profession path regardless of improved collegiate compensation, whereas concurrently educating younger wrestlers the coaching philosophies that made Dagestani fighters dominant.
Below his teaching, the Gilroy Excessive College wrestling workforce has achieved two consecutive runner-up finishes on the California state match in simply three seasons. These wrestlers characterize the long-term funding Cormier believes American MMA requires.
