Cael Sanderson v. Daniel Cormier: NCAA title match at 184 pounds 

Hearing 118-0 in such a tough sport is so nutty 😂

One wrestler went on to win titles in every MMA organization he fought in. Light Heavy and Heavyweight in the UFC. The other went undefeated with 4 national titles and is now the head coach for the most dominant division one college in The country. You can say they both did incredibly well. Oh yes, Cael did get that Gold Medal as well.

DC could never catch a break with running into GOATs

It's amazing DC can compete in such a grueling wrestling match so soon after his fight with Stipe

DC was lookin slim before the popeyes kicked in

Sanderson was the greatest collegiate wrestler ever and even went on to win gold in the Olympics. In international competition, Yoel Romero beat him twice. That's how good Yoel is

It's hard to believe anyone is capable of a perfect college wrestling record.

DC has had an incredible career. Wrestling the only undefeated man in NCAA history, Jon Jones, plus two time world champion in UFC. Such an awesome dude.

Are you sure this is Cormier and not the man that Cormier ate?

the fact DC was only down by ONE point with 40 something seconds to go...is a testament to how good of a wrestler he truly is...

DC at 185? What was he 12 in that video? 🤣

It’s weird to think that DC, Yoel Romero, and Kamaru Usman all wrestled at 84 kg yet when they transitioned to MMA. DC was a LHW & HW, Romero was a MW, and Usman became a WW

Once again, Daniel Cormier's kryptonite.... are GOATS

Cormier hell of an athlete. Bad luck of the draw. Both Wrestling and MMA. Just happened to be at the same time and the same weight as the greatest collegiate wrestler of all time and arguably the greatest mma fighter of all time. Cormier a class act and never made excuses though. 👊👊

RU-vid algorithm coming through. As an ISU fan, I knew the legend of Cael, but didn't know Cormier was in college at the same time.

Cael's coach has some serious intensity and focus. Love it!

Y’all gon make Daniels quarantine hella depressing😂😂😂

Cael was born with a gifted sense of timing and balance no one else had. Guy had a gyroscope inside his brain. Never out of balance.

One of the greatest beasts of all time..DC being forged in the pits of defeat, humiliation, underpowered, outsized, out matched but becomes the gaint killer. David of UFC, gladiator of gladiators, king of the ring. Man who proved size doesn't matter.

DC faced elite talent at every phase of his career.

That was the most beautiful ankle pick I’ve ever seen.

Dat anklepick tho.... 4:04

Great match! That actually looks like DC's natural weight. Imagine what he would have done if he fought at 185?🤔😳🤯

"He moves so freely, great flow....Like water moving to the path of least resistance" RIP Jeff Blatnick

holy hell I've been looking for the this match in HD for 10 or more years! This is AWESOME! The only thing you could do to top it is...find/release HD Dan Gable matches!

Who else read Chael Sonnen?

I am no wrestling expert but I always thought Cormier gave Cael the best competition he faced at the college level. And it was just now that I made the connection between this young athlete and today's MMA fighter.

I love wrestling so much. It was the hardest, yet most rewarding experience of my life so far.

At 8:49 when Cormier took Cael down and started sprawling around to get position you see cael put his arm up to avoid that transition then follow up with his knee and foot so he can't get all the way around, thats years of experience right there to be that quick on defense, that was very impressive.

I believe the coach for Iowa State is Bobby Douglas. Here’s a little known tidbit. He is from the very small town of Bridgeport, OH. Growing up at the same time in the same town were John Havlicek NBA Hall of Famer, Joe Niekro MLB Hall of Famer along with his brother Phil.

No one takes a loss harder than DC. Dude is really passionate in what he does and he shows it. Great champion.

If u ever have the opportunity to participate in a wrestling seminar led by DC...jump on it. I don't know anything about wrestling but the way he explains every single detail makes you feel like you've wrestled your entire life. Also he is deceivingly strong although he probably went 5% on me lol.

Cormier competed against the best of all time at so many different times in his life. He is beyond a legend! Stipe is underated right now, someday we will see he might be the best heavyweight of all time and Cormier has that amazing win over him. Not to mention he has trained hours and hours with Cain. Just imagine that for a second.....

He had 3 titles and when he was asked if he'll get a 4th one he said idk. We'll see next year, crazy

Dc only loses to 🐐 Sanderson,Jones,Stipe

4:05 that’s good asf

Sanderson was always calm during his matches, which is why I think he was the best because he never panicked IMO. I also think that was why he was such a good coach also because he told his wrestlers to not panic and to overall just have fun making them more likely to go for points even during big time matches. Again this is just my thought.

Before DC discovered McDonalds. Dad bod or not he’s still one of the greatest fighters ever

I met cael in high school at a lock Haven wrestling camp...and out of everybody there(all legends for example kary kolat) cael gave me the best techniques out of all and they worked all the way to college. Cael ankle pick is legendary and low singles are smooth asf. After meeting cael something clicked in me in wrestling...and I found out that the very little things in wrestling make the biggest difference...instead of tying up like most high schoolers...we drilled not tying up like that and tie up our owns ways. Or the way your hold a wrist or roll your own...very very small things in technique in wrestling will get you far.

As a longtime UFC fan, it's so great to hear Jeff Blatnick's voice again. RIP

Crazy seeing cormier young and at what would be middleweight in the UFC, especially against one of the greats like cael

dang to have Gable say such good things about you (Cormier) especially the fact he said "IF there's a man that can hang with Cael, it's Cormier" I'd rank that high praise as better than any UFC accolade...

As a guy who loves wrestling, I can’t stop watching 4:04. It’s such a clean, smooth takedown, one of the best takedowns I’ve ever seen. Technique was so good that Daniel couldn’t even defend it

I used to think wrestling was boring to watch especially in MMA. But as the years go by I can love the appeal of it. It is very hard and it takes tremendous cardio to do. I never knew there was such a thing as wrestling cardio.

The best way I’ve found to describe Cael is that he was effortlessly unstoppable.

That Cormier kid looked impressive though, I reckon he could be a world champion one day

Cael Sanderson was arguably ( not much argument other than maybe Dan Gable) the greatest college wrestler to ever step onto the mat so DC had nothing to be ashamed of! Sometimes you are simply outgunned and for DC to keep giving his all for the entire match is truly a testament to his character

Shocking how uncertain of victory Cael sounded. Usually the best see it, believe it, and own it before it ever happens. Truly humble incredibly hard worker.

I just came here to see the legend of skinny Cormier.

Great to hear Jeff Blatnick's voice again, an outstanding commentator and all around class act.

Cael was, hands down, the best collegiate wrestler ever. As a folk style wrestler from kindergarten through my high school senior year, I can tell you, I tried a couple freestyle tournaments, and I hated it. I never tried to adapt to it and didn't want to. Those comparing Yoel to Sanderson don't know what they're talking about. The mere fact that Sanderson beat Romero on the way to gold tells me all I need to know about Cael's status as GOAT.

Daniel's still jogs the same way as he's 184 lbs days 😂😂😂

I’ve always been amazed by the fact Dan Cormier fought at 205 while weighing 235.

DC is still a beast for this match. Respect. Sanderson is one of the greatest wrestlers of all time.

Hearing Jeff Blatnick on something that isn't old MMA is nice. He was quite informative.

Lmfao, the only time DC weighed 184 was when he was born 🤣🤣🤣

9:03 and that's why u cut em aggressively push down on the head and controll the elbow or push em away from u while on a stance, always be ready to score or like our coaches have said since middle school, "Always wrestle till the whistle!"

It looks like DC smiling in the thumbnail while getting suplexed. I swear that dude never stops laughing haha

9:47 lol, genuine empathy for those last two points. nice guy

Only the OG Wrestlers know how gangster it was if you had those John Smith Shoes 🔥 Crazy all the legends in this short video. John Smith , Dan Gable, both legends . Cael goes on to be the greatest college wrestler of all time , never losing , 159-0 , x4 National Champ winning every year, and DC goes on to the Olympics and UFC Champion , man y’all please don’t ever stop posting these videos!

DC didnt have his fatness to use as a weapon yet.

Sanderson, 4-time All-American from Heber City, straight up nasty Af, his entire stay at Iowa State without losing. International he was beaten 3-2 in overtime by Yoel Romero. It was the 2nd time that Romero beat him.

Damn...one mistake, one moment of relaxation, and DC gets taken down, by the NCAA goat 🐐 with under a minute left, after having gotten so close.... Respect

I didn’t know DC retired from MMA and went back to competing in wrestling. 😮What an amazing athlete he is.

I always come back to watching this. Such an entertaining match.

High school wrestling was one of the first times I really felt like a man. Watching these guys wrestle matches on this kind of level reminds me they just get tougher.

THAT'S TRULY MY FAVORITE SPORT

Cormier losing to all the Greats of the sport : Cael, Jones, and Stipe...still a great athlete.

That was great to watch!! Love DC in UFC!!! These guys are so humble too.....wrestlers!!!

This is the best quality of video that ive found for this match

Sandersons dad was my principal and my wrestling coach 🤙

I still cant believe that the year 2001 was 19 years ago.

Definitely favorite mma personality from a champ. Good dude

4:07 another fantastic ankle pick by Sanderson. His ankle pick was just the best. I wonder if other young wrestlers today will ever try to most emulate and work on Sandersons ankle pick. A thing of beauty

Match up of gods

Cael is the type of guy that would have been the top Viking warrior if he had been born 800AD.

That’s why PS so dominant and classy! They mimic their coach.

Wow I remember watching this in the early ‘00s. RIP Jeff😢

How incredible is Cormier, usman and Cormier both wrestling at 185 pounds one of them goes up in weight and becomes hw champion and the other one goes down and becomes ww champion and is the p4p best, tells you how good dc is

This is crazy seeing that DC actually wrestled Cael Sanderson!

I don't think this feat will ever be repeated

Cael was a phenomenal athlete. I can feel his strength just staring through the screen. This guy makes me wanna start wrestling myself.

If this was MMA, Cael would of been experiencing some vicious eyepokes from DC

@9:05 (3rd period, 39secs) what an enormous mental lapse on DC's behalf, especially after such a great TD late in the 3rd. It seemed as though Daniel was admiring his own work which lead to getting caught flat-footed, with an entirely exposed waist. For those who are not avid fans of college wrestling, this is an uncommon folly for a wrestler of his caliber. In addition, DC failed to follow a fundamental rule: never stop wrestling. Well, anyways, you had the best collegiate wrestler of all-time in a vulnerable spot late in a match. That ain't too shabby. But ultimately, it was fatigue that put Daniel in that position. Without Cale in your way, you probably would have been a D1 champ.

It'd be so crazy being Sanderson, seeing DC as the heavyweight champ and saying I beat that dude handily in college wrestling.

This guy Daniel Cormier can be the UFC LHW and HW champ at the same time. The guy has so much potential.

DC got as far from this weight class as he could

Cormier's return to the highest levels of collegiate wrestling following his second defeat to Stipe Miocic is inspiring, and his drop back to 185 pounds makes him look 20 years younger.

MY BROTHER JOSH REYNOLDS WAS RUNNER UP IN 1998 TSSAA WRESTLING AND HE WAS A WRESTLER FOR SPRINGFIELD YELLOW JACKETS IN THE 90'S HE IS A WRESTLING COACH NOW.

DC been competing at high levels his whole life, great MMA and wrestling careers, he couldn't never beat Jones who's clearly alla round better then him, and Cael was clearly a different animal here. But DC was always the guy pushing them to be as good as they are, which speaks volumes about DC and his abilities.

I'm from the same state as Cael Sanderson. I was in high school when I would see the little Sanderson brothers wrestling in Freestyle and Greco tournaments around the state. They were just in grade school at the time. Cael was really good back then, and I remember thinking that one day he would be great. I'm not surprised at how things turned out for him.

It’s crazy that yoel Romero beat this dude twice.

Lol Man, DC was in great shape here for sure even though he was much lighter, I could only imagine what is career in the UFC would have been like if he had stayed in this shape, I mean for sure he still had an absolute phenomenal career in the UFC no doubt but being in this kind of shape could take you to greater levels for sure than where he was for sure, DC was almost the total package in UFC but if he was in this kind of shape he would have been the total package for sure..but anyways it's alright he's still one of the greatest mma and combat athletes of all time and a legend for sure..

It’s amazing to me that when DC did something good no one screamed but when Sanderson did something the place shook!

I never liked wrestling but damn matches like these got me loving the sport

Wow Cormier was in shape when he was younger

Who watching after dc stipe 3, rip dc

Both men are so successful in every way you can think of that's motivation on hard work and how a man should carry themselves

Cael Sanderson - 1. Head Coach of Penn State 2. Olympic Gold Medalists 3. Happy Family Life Daniel Cormier - 1. Strikeforce Heavyweight Tournament Champion 2. UFC Heavyweight and Light Heavyweight Champion 3. AKA Coach

Daniel cormier has a full house and cal Sanderson hits the straight flush omg unbelievable!!