Daniel Cormier Says He had COVID-19 Before Fighting Stipe Miocic at UFC 252

Daniel Cormier says he discovered something was off with him thanks to a smart ring device.

COVID-19 impacted DC’s life this summer. In a recent interview with Yahoo Sports, the former Ultimate Fighting Championship two-division king revealed that he started to guess something was wrong midway through his training camp for UFC 252. On July 1, one of Cormier's teammates tested positive for the virus. Even though the tests of Cormier -- who immediately wanted to make sure he had not been infected -- came back negative a few days later, he began to feel symptoms by the end of that week.

“But over the weekend, I started feeling a little sick,” Cormier said. “Things weren't exactly ... well, let me put it this way: I wasn't sick, but I got a little tired and peaked. Monday comes, I go to practice and I spar and I worked out three times. I felt OK, but I was a little bit tired is, I guess, how I would put it.”

The constant fatigue summed up with an unusually high resting heart rate and low readiness scores -- a sort of general check-up measured thanks to his smart ring -- forced “DC” to go to the doctor, where he discovered he had COVID-19. He recovered in time to face Stipe Miocic once again for the heavyweight championship in Las Vegas on Aug. 15. That night, the defending champion proved to be the better man and upended Cormier after five rounds of battle. Yet, the former champ doesn't make any excuses for that loss.

“This is not an excuse at all,” Cormier concluded. “Miocic won the fight and he fought beautifully.”

Following his back-to-back defeats with Miocic, “DC” announced his retirement from MMA. Cormier's achievements include holding both the UFC heavyweight and light heavyweight championships simultaneously, the second man ever to become a dual two-division champion after Conor McGregor.