Daniel Cormier admitted he tried to talk Ben Askren out of his retirement wrestling match, only to watch his friend prove that doubt wrong.

Speaking with Askren after the event, Cormier was open about his initial reaction when Askren first shared his plans:

Sadly, I was one of those people that tried to put a limit on you. When you first told me, I called you like…
You know when it’s worse when you got a friend that sends you a text like: “Hey, you got time for a conversation?”

Askren later told Cormier directly:

Daniel tried talking me out of it, but you know, that wasn’t going to go down like that.

What made the performance more remarkable was how much Askren had kept private.

Having undergone a double lung transplant, he concealed the true extent of his physical limitations from almost everyone, including Cormier:

I didn’t know how limited I was. I didn’t even tell you how bad I was doing.
I didn’t know if I could wrestle hard for six minutes.

Even with that uncertainty, Askren stuck to a clear strategy against Belal Muhammad, working hand fighting to control distance and looking to punish sloppy shots:

I got him to push a little too hard where I got a whizzer kick on the edge. I got him to snap too hard where I shot into a double on the edge.

He also had a gut wrench ready if he found himself on top, though the opportunity never came, and by the third round, Muhammad’s pressure caught up to him:

I was like, I don’t have anything left. There’s nothing left in the tank.

By the end, Cormier reversed everything he’d said beforehand:

After watching last weekend, you just literally showed that you can do just amazing things.

You showed people not to be limited by stuff.
You can never become a victim to your circumstance.

Askren closed the night by leaving his wrestling shoes on the mat, walking out to a standing ovation in his hometown with his wife and children watching.

Cormier called it a fitting finish:

Only certain people should have that opportunity.
I think you’ve got to accomplish something in this thing to have earned the right to leave your shoes out on the mat.

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