It’s no secret that former two-division UFC champion Daniel Cormier all the time retains a watchful eye on the very best wrestlers arising in the US.
As a two-time Olympian and present coach of a high-school wrestling workforce, Cormier stays near the game he grew up loving earlier than turning into a fighter, nevertheless it seems he really interacted with a future American gold medalist a number of years in the past and didn’t even comprehend it. Primarily coaching out of the American Kickboxing Academy in San Jose, Cormier crosses paths with lots of fighters, Brazilian jiu-jitsu practitioners, and wrestlers who additionally work out on the fitness center — and that included future 2024 Olympic gold medalist Amit Elor.
“A little bit backstory, Amir Elor used to all the time be across the Bay space with a girl named Carolyn Wester, she coached at a membership known 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 good 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 footage of Amit, and Carolyn would take footage of Amit with the workforce. That’s one factor they do in MMA gyms. On the finish of follow, all people will get collectively for a photograph. Amit’s in lots of these footage.”
Elor’s work clearly paid off. She captured gold at 68kg with a surprising run by way of the 2024 Olympics, finally outscoring her opponents by a ridiculous margin of 31-2. At 20 years outdated, she additionally grew to become the youngest American to ever win a gold medal in wrestling — a file as soon as held by Henry Cejudo, who gained his gold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 sector.
“Carolyn goes, ‘Amit’s wrestling [at the Olympics],’ and I’m going, ‘The little lady from the fitness center?’” Cormier recounted. “She’s like, ‘Yeah, and she or he’s going to win.’ I’m like, ‘She’s that good?’ And she or he was like, ‘She’s going to win.’”
Not solely did Elor win in emphatic style, she shared that glory along with her teammates after the U.S. ladies went dwelling with two gold medals — the opposite gained 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 burden up in her very first match. [Elor] destroys her. She went onto kill the remainder of the sector after that.”
Whereas Elor’s focus stays on wrestling, particularly with the 2028 Olympics taking place in her dwelling state of California, she has lots of time left to perform much more objectives.
Elor may 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 struggle,” Cormier stated. “She’s going to be a fighter. For nearly as good as she is in wrestling, she does rather well in judo, she does super 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 workforce. As a lot as Cormier liked 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 will’t lose Amit Elor,” Cormier stated. “I really like when nice wrestlers come into blended martial arts, however I’m all the time for them doing it after they’re executed chasing their Olympic desires. You don’t get to do this once more. If in case you have a chance to be the very best on the planet, you chase that so long as you possibly can and you then 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 you then come to try to make the cash because the UFC fighter.”
