For both Daniel Cormier and Stipe Miocic, legacies have been forged through blood and sweat. These are a couple of lunchpail-toting, blue-collar workhorses who rose to power the hard way. Two civic-minded, boy-scout nice, self-made athletic studs.
Cormier traveled a common path. Discovered by his future coach while engaged in a schoolyard fight, he was a natural in the wrestling room. Over 100 wins in high school, an All-American in college, an Olympian. Chasing, chasing, relentlessly chasing gold. Miocic took a more circuitous route. Equally gifted in wrestling and baseball, he lettered in both sports in college, then nearly took a detour into boxing before settling on MMA and finding yet another sport in which to excel.