Daniel Cormier’s assessment of the absence of American champions in the UFC is neither nostalgic nor reactionary. It is a structural diagnosis of a shifting balance of power in modern MMA. The numbers are striking: no American currently holds a UFC title, and only one appears in the pound-for-pound rankings—an uncomfortable reality for an organization whose events and identity remain largely rooted in the United States.
A former two-division champion and Olympic wrestler, Cormier traces the problem back to a fundamental disconnect: the gradual separation between American wrestling and professional MMA. Historically, the U.S. has produced some of the world’s most accomplished wrestlers, yet fewer of them now transition into the cage. Safer career paths, limited institutional bridges, and a lack of long-term MMA development pipelines have all contributed to this drift.
Cormier’s argument gains weight because it avoids denial. He openly praises fighters like Khabib Nurmagomedov and Islam Makhachev, not as isolated talents, but as products of systems that have fully embraced wrestling as the foundation of dominance. The contrast is stark. While American wrestling excellence still exists, it is no longer systematically converted into MMA supremacy.
🤔 Daniel Cormier: Are American wrestlers the future of UFC titles?
🤔 دانييل كورمييه: هل المصارعون الأمريكيون هم مستقبل أحزمة الـUFC؟
🤔 Daniel Cormier : les lutteurs américains sont-ils l’avenir des ceintures de l’UFC ?#UFC #DanielCormier #mma pic.twitter.com/XIRb2mh3y7
— mmamag.ma (@jamalsoussi10) February 8, 2026
By pointing to Eastern Europe, Cormier highlights a broader tactical evolution. Today’s champions are rarely pure strikers. They are controllers—fighters who dictate where the fight takes place, suffocate offense, and impose tempo. Wrestling, when combined with discipline and strategic patience, has once again become the most reliable path to sustained success.
What remains largely implicit in Cormier’s remarks is perhaps the most unsettling aspect: the UFC’s elite level is increasingly shaped by foreign development models. Without a coherent effort to reintegrate American wrestlers into MMA at an early stage, this imbalance risks becoming structural rather than cyclical.
This is not merely a discussion about belts or rankings. It is a philosophical reckoning. Success in modern MMA is no longer built on individual talent alone, but on ecosystems that value hardship, repetition, and long-term vision. In that regard, the American system appears to have lost some of the hunger that once defined it.
Daniel Cormier’s message is ultimately an internal warning. He speaks not as an outsider, but as one of the last champions forged by the old model. His diagnosis challenges the UFC—and American combat sports more broadly—to decide whether they are willing to rebuild the bridge between wrestling and MMA, or accept a future where dominance is imported rather than produced.
