We're just days away from bidding farewell to another fantastic year of MMA action, which means it's time to look back at what's happened in the octagon over the past twelve months.
That includes recapping all the predictions made on the back end of 2023, and for former doubles champion Daniel Cormier; It's been a year full of choices that he would rather we all forget.
Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC
UFC legend Daniel Cormier laughs off a terrible year full of predictions
Daniel Cormier may be one of the best fighters and commentators in MMA history, but if there's one thing DC struggles with: making accurate predictions.
MMA fans got a belated Christmas gift this week, a 13-minute reunion of the DC&RC Show, with Ryan Clark rejoining his former co-host for a humorous recap of their predictions from last year.
“Dude, a staple of our show was making terrible predictions,” Cormier said: “Bro, literally, we were the worst at predictions.
“Last year we did 'fights we wanted to see' and I said Jones vs Miocic – which is what we got. McGregor vs. Chandler – they're talking about fighting again. And then I said, the winner of Jones vs Miocic vs Tom Aspinall – and it could be [still] to happen.
“I said Tom Aspinall would be my male fighter of the year – wrong. I said my female fighter of the year would be Erin Blanchfield – double wrong. And I said my new champion in December would be Shavkat [Rakhmonov]… I was terrible, like I always was.”
To be fair, these three predictions weren't exactly bad ones; Blanchfield may have fallen short against Manon Fiorot, but Tom Aspinall retained his interim title and Rakhmonov could have achieved champion status had it not been for a last-minute injury before UFC 310.
Clark didn't get many more predictions right either, while Cormier giggled as he went over RC's late 2023 picks.
“Your battles to see; Jones vs. Aspinall – wrong. O'Malley vs. Merab – you really get that. Pantoja vs. Moreno 3 [didn’t happen]. You said you were fighter of the year [going to be] Sean O'Malley – wrong. Female Fighter of the Year was Zhang Weili – and that could still be the case.
“Then your new champion in December was Jamahal Hill” – it's certainly been a tough year for 'Sweatdreams', who returns to action on January 18 at UFC 311 against former champion Jiri Prochazka.
Ryan Clark left DC&RC last February, signing off with a final warning about the nature of these types of prediction shows.
“You can't choose based on people you like; you can't do that – that's not how this fighting game works. I like Jamahal, I hung out with him a bit, he was nice and then this happens.
“But isn't that the beauty of the fighting game? As if you can't actually predict it.”
That's true, whatever your predictions were this time last year, it would be virtually impossible to get them all right given the often chaotic nature of MMA – maybe next year?
Related posts
Comments