Former Cowboy wrestler headlines Strikeforce event

Daniel Cormier was sitting on a friend’s couch watching UFC 100 back in the summer of 2009 when he decided to give mixed martial arts a try.

Three years later, his heavyweight fight against Frank Mir is the marquee event in a Strikeforce event on Showtime.

“I can’t believe now I’m headlining a major show like that,” Cormier said.

That bout on Nov. 3 in Oklahoma City is just the latest sign of how quickly things have happened for Cormier. The former Oklahoma State wrestler is undefeated in 10 fights and is one of the top ranked heavyweights in the world. After fighting Mir, he’ll move from Strikeforce to UFC.

The sport’s big league awaits.

“It’s a big deal,” Cormier said. “But where am I going to fall in UFC? If I beat Frank Mir, where does that put me in terms of title contention?”

UFC president Dana White has called Cormier one of the world’s best heavyweight fighters. Should Cormier beat Mir, a former two-time champion, White doesn’t seem opposed to a championship bout in the near future for Cormier.

A two-time Olympic wrestler, Cormier credits his former sport for the ascent in his current sport.

“A lot of it is directly a result of my career in wrestling,” he said. “I took the ability to train, the knowledge of how to train and how to train hard, and applied it to this new sport.”

But he had to work on many of the skills that he needed to be a successful fighter. Punching. Kicking. Even taking a punch. He’d never done any of that.

“Before, I just closed my eyes,” he said of punching. Now? “I’m looking dead at ‘em.”

Cormier still marvels at how quickly his career has taken off. Three years ago, he was only watching bigtime professional bouts. In November, he will be taking on one of the sport’s best heavyweights.

“This is exactly what I want to be doing right now, fighting guys like that,” Cormier said.