Relentless UFC Pound-for-King Pound Daniel Cormier Is Better Than Ever At Age 39 | Bleacher Report

Thirty-nine is not an age known for athletic achievement.

By the time an athlete is 39 years old, they are very comfortable in their careers or already comfortably ensconced in retirement. It's the time when your reflexes start slowing down, when you begin to fight against fighters who you would have blown right through a few years ago.

It's when you start thinking about getting a gig or devoting time.

There are exceptions to the rule, of course. The ageless Randy Couture comes to mind. At the moment, the most prominent exception is Daniel Cormier, who, at 39 years old, holds the UFC 's light heavyweight and heavyweight titles and who, at 39 years old, could be better than ever.

How can a person excel at a sport grueling and mentally punishing mixed martial arts at 39? How is it that Cormier, who faces Derrick Lewis in a heavyweight title in Saturday's New York, can not two divisions at an age when most fighters have retired where they should retire?

It all starts with Cormier's background. Pretty much any fighter who makes it to the modern-era UFC is going to possess a modicum of athleticism. But Cormier has spent a lifetime in wrestling, and wrestling is a sport that produces athletes that are just different.

They are subjected to horrendous levels of physical and mental stress, and they endure it because they are the way they are wrestling, and the end result are athletes and humans who just have a different mindset to others.

But wrestling does not fully explain why Cormier is excelling at an athletically advanced age. If it did, then all wrestlers would be dominating the sport well into their 40s, and that just does not happen.

The thing that separates Brock Lesnar, who is heading to the best he had in the world.

"Cormier told Bleacher Report earlier this year. "I had no fun fights I was fighting Bigfoot Silva a year and seven months after I started, and he was ranked top five in the world.

"I had to stand up to the UFC champion who was the champion of the world. It's crazy! But that's what excites me about competition. "

Spend a day in San Jose, California, with Cormier, and you realize that it takes no excuses. It's exhausting just to read his daily schedule.

He starts early in the morning, waking up late in the morning, he's going to be there, he's always going somewhere, doing something. He trains obsessively at American Kickboxing Academy. He helps other AKA fighters prepare for their own fights. He coaches kids for his wrestling school at AKA and at Gilroy High School. Oh, and he works regular broadcasts for FOX Sports. And he does it all while winning and holding two UFC championships.

And what is the reason why Cormier continues to excel even as he's near his self-mandated retirement age of 40: because he's been embracing and conquering challenges his entire life. And when you never give yourself a moment to rest and relax, you never get lazy. You never rest on your laurels.

There are always new mountains to climb, new goals to check off your list.

"I seek out the big challenge," he said. "I think that's why I've accomplished the things I've accomplished, I've been a guy who worked hard, a guy who did everything the right way."

Cormier entered the sport a decade ago, but a championship fighter. He wanted to be the greatest to ever do it. And though there will always be a debate about who holds that lofty title, one thing is now certain: Cormier is part of the conversation.