Being a fly on the wall during Luke Rockhold and Daniel Cormier’s first sparring match would’ve been an intriguing venture.
Before he earned the UFC middleweight title, Luke Rockhold was one of the star pupils at American Kickboxing Academy in California. As he prepared to move up the middleweight ladder, a UFC Hall of Famer joined his team, and he welcomed him with a horrific sparring session.
Rockhold and Daniel Cormier are two of the greatest fighters to ever grace the cage. They’re also longtime friends and teammates with Cormier in Rockhold’s corner for some of the biggest fights of his career, including his middleweight title win over Chris Weidman.
Rockhold was one of the first people Cormier met when he first joined AKA at a relatively unknown point in his combat sports career. While the two quickly built a strong bond in and out of the gym, their first exchanges were focused on throwing hands and making each other better through brutal sessions.
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Luke Rockhold gave Daniel Cormier a brutal welcome to AKA
During a recent interview with Submission Radio, Rockhold shared what happened when Cormier entered the American Kickboxing Academy for the first time.
“The moment DC walked into the gym, I called him out for a sparring match, and we went toe-to-toe and tried to take each other’s heads off,” Rockhold said. “I like testing new talent, and there’s always the toughest guys in the world, AKA was awesome. And obviously everyone we had was great.”
Rockhold and Cormier were two of the top strikers in the UFC at the time of their physical primes. Cormier’s knockout of Stipe Miocic to become a two-division champion at UFC 226 is one of the wildest finishes in heavyweight history.
Rockhold knocked out Weidman at UFC 194 to capture the UFC middleweight championship. He also finished the likes of Lyoto Machida, Costas Philippou, and Michael Bisping during his career.
Luke Rockhold and Daniel Cormier helped turn each other into world champions
Rockhold hasn’t fought in the UFC Octagon since a loss to Paulo Costa at UFC 278. He returned to fighting in his bare-knuckle debut against Mike Perry in April 2023, losing by second-round TKO.
Rockhold appeared at Karate Combat 45 last April, winning a third-round TKO fight over elite kickboxer Joe Schilling. He recently joined Global Fight League for the promotion’s inaugural season.
Cormier retired from the UFC in 2020 after a trilogy loss to Miocic at UFC 252. He entered the UFC Hall of Fame in 2022 alongside their longtime teammate Khabib Nurmagomedov.
Rockhold and Cormier molded each other into household names in the UFC after their first sparring session. Their success shows the value of team chemistry in a sport that is individually focused.