It’s no secret that former two-division UFC champion Daniel Cormier at all times retains a watchful eye on one of the best wrestlers arising in the US.
As a two-time Olympian and present coach of a high-school wrestling crew, Cormier stays near the game he grew up loving earlier than changing into a fighter, but it surely seems he truly interacted with a future American gold medalist a number of years in the past and didn’t even realize it. Primarily coaching out of the American Kickboxing Academy in San Jose, Cormier crosses paths with plenty of fighters, Brazilian jiu-jitsu practitioners, and wrestlers who additionally work out on the health club — and that included future 2024 Olympic gold medalist Amit Elor.
“Just a little backstory, Amir Elor used to at all times be across the Bay space with a girl named Carolyn Wester, she coached at a membership referred to as Wrestling Prep and she or he teaches wrestling,” Cormier stated on The Fighter vs. The Author. “She’s a woman that coaches and she or he’s an amazing coach, very sensible girl.
“She would convey Amit into [American Kickboxing Academy]. I didn’t know who she was however she would wrestle with the boys. I’ve all these photos of Amit, and Carolyn would take photos of Amit with the crew. That’s one factor they do in MMA gyms. On the finish of apply, everyone will get collectively for a photograph. Amit’s in plenty of these photos.”
Elor’s work clearly paid off. She captured gold at 68kg with a surprising run by the 2024 Olympics, finally outscoring her opponents by a ridiculous margin of 31-2. At 20 years previous, she additionally turned the youngest American to ever win a gold medal in wrestling — a report as soon as held by Henry Cejudo, who received his gold medal in 2008.
None of it got here to a shock to Elor’s coach, who advised Cormier earlier than the Olympics began that she was going to dominate the sphere.
“Carolyn goes, ‘Amit’s wrestling [at the Olympics],’ and I am going, ‘The little woman from the health club?’” Cormier recounted. “She’s like, ‘Yeah, and she or he’s going to win.’ I’m like, ‘She’s that good?’ And he or she was like, ‘She’s going to win.’”
Not solely did Elor win in emphatic style, she shared that glory together with her teammates after the U.S. ladies went house with two gold medals — the opposite received by Sarah Hildebrandt — a silver from 20-year-old phenom Kennedy Blades, and a bronze for Helen Maroulis.
“She killed it,” Cormier stated of Elor. “That first match, speak about unhealthy luck. The World Champion from the yr earlier than from that weight class will get the World Champion from the load up in her very first match. [Elor] destroys her. She went onto kill the remainder of the sphere after that.”
Whereas Elor’s focus stays on wrestling, particularly with the 2028 Olympics taking place in her house state of California, she has plenty of time left to perform much more targets.
Elor might probably wrestle throughout no less than three Olympic cycles and would solely be 28 when it was throughout.
When the day comes that she hangs her singlet up for the ultimate time, Cormier believes Elor is destined to make waves in MMA.
“She’s going to battle,” Cormier stated. “She’s going to be a fighter. For pretty much as good as she is in wrestling, she does rather well in judo, she does great in jiu-jitsu. If she does begin doing [MMA] competitively, they’re going to be in bother.”
First issues first, Cormier desires Elor to stay with wrestling as a result of she’s going to stay an enormous asset to the American crew. As a lot as Cormier beloved his UFC profession and the cash and accomplishments that got here together with it, he is aware of there’s nothing fairly like chasing Olympic glory.
“We are able to’t lose Amit Elor,” Cormier stated. “I really like when nice wrestlers come into blended martial arts, however I’m at all times for them doing it after they’re executed chasing their Olympic desires. You don’t get to do this once more. When you’ve got a possibility to be one of the best on this planet, you chase that so long as you possibly can and then you definately go do one thing totally different. I don’t suppose it must be coming sooner than wanted.
“You go and wrestle so long as you might want to wrestle, and then you definately come to attempt to make the cash because the UFC fighter.”
