Daniel Cormier has outlined a multi-pronged strategy to restore American dominance in UFC, focused on recruiting collegiate wrestlers into MMA and exposing young wrestlers to Dagestani training methods. His comments come amid a significant shift in the UFC demographics, with no US male champion currently holding titles and fighters from the Caucasus region making up 37% of all champions, despite representing 0.2% of the world’s population.
The former two-division UFC champion and Olympic wrestler recently spoke via YallStreetTV about his mission to recruit American wrestlers for mixed martial arts. Cormier praised the success of Khabib Nurmagomedov and Islam Makhachev, while making it clear that his ultimate goal is to see American wrestlers regain the championship belts.
“American wrestlers are not as open to fighting as we need them to be. But I have a plan. I’m going to get American wrestlers to fight,” Cormier said. “I love those guys – I love Khabib, I love Islam. Those guys are the best. But I want American wrestlers as champions. I think this is the only group of people who want to make it back. It’s the Eastern European wrestlers who are champions – very few strikers. It’s wrestlers who are champions. We need to get our wrestlers back into the sport of mixed martial arts.”
The Dagestan dominance problem
The numbers tell a grim story. As of early 2026, there are no U.S. male champions in any UFC division. Warriors from the Caucasus regionspecifically DagestanChechnya and Georgia now hold about 37% of the UFC titles, despite representing 0.2% of the world’s population. Islam Makhachev currently holds the welterweight championship after relinquishing his lightweight title, Khamzat Chimaev controls the middleweight division and Georgian native Ilia Topuria reigns supreme at lightweight.
Makhachev himself addressed the shift in August 2025, pointing to cultural differences in motivation. “They just started signing more of our guys, that’s the reason,” Makhachev said. “Our boys live for this sport. In the US, for example, they don’t worry even if they competed poorly. Behind our boys there is a family, the whole city, the whole Republic. And he feels this responsibility, goes out with full responsibility and wins.”
Daniel Cormier explains
Cormier has identified one specific obstacle that keeps elite American wrestlers from transitioning to MMA: college wrestling salaries. During the UFC 322 weigh-in show, Cormier explained that when he competed at Oklahoma State, his monthly stipend was increased from $750 to $1,000. Today, top wrestlers earn between $100,000 and $400,000 a year, with some high school athletes commanding six-figure deals before stepping onto the college mat.
“I used to think it was impossible that there wouldn’t be any American fighters in the UFC pound-for-pound top 10. But now there really isn’t any,” Cormier said. “What’s killing us is that colleges have started paying wrestlers. In the last five years, they’ve started paying really well. They don’t have to fight anymore.”
He pointed out the historical foundation of American UFC dominance, which reads like a wrestling roster: Jon Jones, Kamaru Usman, Colby Covington, Chris Weidman, Henry Cejudo and Cormier himself. In the past five years, only Bo Nickal and Gable Steveson have made the transition from elite collegiate wrestling to MMA.
Cormier’s approach includes sending his own youth wrestlers to train in Dagestan. He arranged for students from his Gilroy wrestling program to train in Russia for a month, along with coaches from Khabib’s team. This week, Cormier is sending eight high school wrestlers to Moscow and Dagestan for three weeks of training and competition, including a dual meet against the Russian National Youth Champions at the Ivan Yarygin Sports Palace.
The wrestlers, all Tulsa Nationals All-Americans, will compete against Russian counterparts hand-selected from various national championship programs. Cormier sees this exposure to Dagestani training methods as essential to developing the next generation of American fighters who can compete at the highest levels.
When I started fighting I said, man, if these Russian guys come from these parts, it’s going to be a problem because you know how good they were as wrestlers,” Cormier previously told Joe Rogan. “What’s going to happen when these guys start fighting? And it’s the same.”
Cormier’s strategy combines recruitment and training. He wants to convince elite American wrestlers that MMA remains a viable career path despite improved collegiate compensation, while at the same time teaching young wrestlers the training philosophies that made Dagestani fighters dominant.
Under his guidance, the Gilroy High School wrestling team has earned two consecutive second-place finishes at the California state tournament in just three seasons. These wrestlers represent the long-term investment Cormier thinks American MMA needs.
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