Sherdog’s Top 10: Successful Olympic Crossovers

4. Daniel Cormier

As strange as it sounds for a wrestling career that included two junior college national championships, NCAA All-American status, a loss to Cael Sanderson in the NCAA final, a bronze medal at the 2007 world championships and a fourth-place finish in freestyle at the 2004 Olympics, Cormier’s wrestling career still held unfulfilled promise. The team captain in Beijing at the 2008 Summer Olympics, Cormier’s lax preparations led to his trying to cut an obscene amount of weight -- reportedly more than 30 pounds -- before the event, which caused kidney failure and forced him out of the competition altogether. A brief stint in the now-defunct Real Pro Wrestling league followed Cormier’s amateur wrestling career until he left the sport altogether to pursue mixed martial arts.

Cormier installed himself at the American Kickboxing Academy alongside such luminaries as Cain Velasquez, Luke Rockhold, Jon Fitch and Josh Koscheck. His world-class wrestling skills, awesome athleticism and strong team made him an immediate success, scoring victories over veteran Jeff Monson and consensus top-5 fighters Antonio Silva and Josh Barnett within the first three years of his professional career. The Louisianan parlayed the win over Barnett and the Strikeforce heavyweight grand prix title that accompanied it into a spot in the UFC’s heavyweight division, where he won a pair of fights against former champ Frank Mir and bomber Roy Nelson before dropping to light heavyweight and notching a pair of victories at 205 pounds.

The former Olympian stands on the precipice of the greatness that eluded him throughout his wrestling career, as light heavyweight king Jon Jones awaits his attention at UFC 182 on Jan. 3. Perhaps now is the 35-year-old Cormier’s time to shine.

Number 3 » Mark Coleman