Daniel Cormier explains why Patrick Cummins ‘made him cry’

Oct 19, 2013; Houston, TX, USA; Daniel Cormier answers a question during the press conference following UFC 166 at Toyota Center. Mandatory Credit: Andrew Richardson-USA TODAY Sports

After Rashad Evans was forced to withdraw from his co-main event match up with Daniel Cormier at UFC 170, it looked like Cormier’s highly anticipated debut at light heavyweight would have to wait.

However, an undefeated former two-time All-American wrestler, Patrick Cummins, stepped up to the plate and took the fight on short notice.

As soon as the fight was announced, Cummins began making some waves by talking about how he “broke” Cormier during training when the two wrestlers went at each other and he even went as far as to say he made Cormier cry.

Cormier had denied those claims by Cummins, but now he has opened up about what went down.

One thing is true: Cormier did cry after Cumins beat him in training. However, it was outside factors with his personal life and Olympic dreams that caused him to break down.

Here is what Cormier told TheSHOOT:

"“This was around 2004,” said Cormier. “I lost my daughter in 2003, so I was having a whole bunch of personal issues. I called our head coach at the time and told him the story Pat told.“And he was like ‘That’s not what happened. What is he talking about? He’s just lying.’“I go ‘what happened?’“He goes, ‘well you guys were simulating the Olympic games just as he said.’ And he beat me. He did beat me in a match, and I said, ‘We’re going again.’ And the coach told me ‘No, the Olympics are over for you. You lost.’ And that’s what freaked me out and I ran out of the room. Yeah, I did cry, I was pissed off. I had to put myself in the mindset that I was wrestling for an Olympic Gold medal and I had given it away. And then my coach wouldn’t let me get my hands back on him.“But we did compete against each other in reality one time. I was at 211 pounds and he wrestled as a heavyweight. He was the #3 heavyweight in the country and I beat him 7-0. So when we did strap our boots on and went and wrestled each other, I beat him pretty good.”“Those things stay in the wrestling room. We don’t talk about training. That’s wrestler code 101. He knows that. He knew the things that I was going through at that time. To put himself in the situation, he went and dug up some things that he should have never have dug up. Those things stay back in 2004. Because he knew my situation. The Pat I remember wasn’t like that. That’s not the guy I remember when I was training for the Olympic Games. It’s a different person and that’s just life. People change with time and people change with life.”"

It is obvious that Cormier has been irked by Cummins’ comments, but the UFC newcomer may have given Cormier some extra motivation for the fight.

If Cormier is looking to make a statement at 205-pounds and shut up a guy for breaking a code and digging up dirt from the past, Patrick Cummins could be in for a rude awakening at UFC 170 on Saturday night.