Daniel Cormier responds to AKA injury criticizers

UFC light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier has had enough of people criticizing his team, the American Kickboxing Academy (AKA), after the slew of injuries that have seemed to find their way into the San Jose based gym.

The injury history of former UFC middleweight champ Luke Rockhold, former heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez and No. 1-ranked lightweight Khabib Nurmagomedov (all fellow AKA teammates of Cormier) are very well documented, but now the injury bug has seemed to bite down on the 205-pound Cormier, who was forced to pull out of his main event scheduled title defense against Anthony ‘Rumble’ Johnson at UFC 206.

AKA has been under much scrutiny for its training methods as a result, but Cormier was having none of it during his appearance on The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani this past Monday (November 28, 2016) as he fired back at those who criticize his gym (courtesy of MMA Fighting):

“It’s not Javier’s fault,” Cormier said. “This isn’t college. We’re not high-school athletes. Javier can tell me not to spar and I’ll be like, ‘Yeah sure, Jav.’ And then I’ll go spar. People always get confused. They talk about coaches. The reality is, these coaches and managers that everybody thinks are in so much control, they work for us. They’re our employees.”

“The decisions are mine,” he said. “If I got hurt, it was my fault.”

‘DC’ and ‘Rumble’ were set to main event UFC 206 in Toronto next week for the light heavyweight title, a rematch of their original meeting at UFC 187 of last year in which ‘DC’ emerged victorious via third round submission. But a groin muscle tear would force the former Olympian out of the contest and leave an interim featherweight title clash between Max Holloway and former 155-pound title-holder Anthony ‘Showtime’ Pettis to fill the void.

Holloway and Pettis will meet in the main event of UFC 206 for the interim featherweight title live on pay-per-view (PPV) from the Air Canada Centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada on December 10, 2016.