Cormier recalls ‘welfare’ days
Daniel Cormier: “I had a 700-square foot apartment in San Jose, California—one bedroom—and we had no money. And my family has no money down in Louisiana.”
Daniel Cormier is now the UFC light heavyweight champion and is likely to make millions of dollars as the title holder. But it wasn’t always that way for Cormier, who spoke about his tough past at the UFC 187 post-fight press conference:
We had nothing. Salina and I had nothing. She’s been with me since I had one fight. One time, we had our son, young baby. I was in Strikeforce, and I would barely fight. Salina and I had a 700-square foot apartment in San Jose, California—one bedroom—and we had no money. And my family has no money down in Louisiana. And I was so desperate because we had no gas, we had nothing.
We were on welfare. We called my parents, and they don’t have much. But my mom, my dad, my brothers and my sister—they pulled together whatever they had and they had $575, and they sent it to Salina and I. And it allowed us to actually get through the month until my next sponsorship check from Cage Fighter came. … It’s great to give this championship to my parents and my fiancee because now, we’re fine.