Former UFC Champion Reveals What Really Went Down in Brutal Training Sessions With Daniel Cormier
A former UFC champion who trained alongside Daniel Cormier at the AKA gym revealed who would win the sparring sessions in practice and what it was like.
The gym wars behind the doors of American Kickboxing Academy are the stuff of mixed martial arts folklore. For years, the mats in San Jose served as an unforgiving proving ground where heavyweight monsters forged their careers. At the center of that legendary era were Cain Velasquez and Daniel Cormier, two lifelong friends whose sparring sessions were widely rumored to be more violent than actual pay-per-view title fights.
Former UFC light heavyweight champion Quinton āRampageā Jackson recently decided to cut through the red tape and ask Velasquez point-blank about those infamous closed-door clashes. During an appearance on the JAXXON PODCAST, Jackson tried to coax out an admission that Velasquez ran the show in the gym.
āYou trained with DC, right? Real talk, you be beating his a** donāt you? In the gym, come on,ā Jackson asked with a laugh.
Velasquez, always soft-spoken outside the cage, immediately shut down the notion that their sparring sessions were a one-sided affair.
āNo, no, no, dude, we had some battles in there,ā Velasquez responded. āAnd some days Iād get the better of him, you know, and some days he would. And thatās what pushed us to where we got to.ā
Iron Sharpening Iron at AKA
The mutual respect between the two former champions is rooted in years of brutal grind. When Cormier arrived at AKA following his Olympic wrestling career, Velasquez was already tearing through the UFC heavyweight division on his way to capturing the undisputed crown. Cormier often credited an early sparring session with Velasquez, where he suffered a broken nose, as the wake-up call that transformed him from a pure wrestler into a complete mixed martial artist.
Their bond was so tight that Cormier eventually dropped down to light heavyweight to capture 205-pound gold, refusing to challenge Velasquez for the heavyweight strap while his teammate ruled the division. Cormier ultimately returned to heavyweight later in his career to knock out Stipe Miocic and secure double-champ status, while Velasquez finished his career as a two-time heavyweight champion who set the promotional record for the most knockouts in division history.
Neither man ever had to face the other under the bright lights of the Octagon, but as Velasquez made clear, they took plenty of rounds off each other away from the cameras. Without those daily heavyweight collisions pushing them to their physical limits, the history of the UFC heavyweight division might look completely different today.
