"I've watched it 100 times," Cormier said on Monday's edition of The MMA Hour.
Why? Well, after his first career mixed martial arts defeat, the former Strikeforce heavyweight grand prix champion doesn't want to let the feeling subside. He wants the fire to keep burning in order to fuel his return to competition.
"It has to burn," Cormier said. "It has to feel so bad. It has to punch you in the gut every time you watch it."
"Every time I watch it, I watch a very competitive fight, and I watch one guy stay the course, one guy get off course, and that guy was me," Cormier said. "I watch my facial expressions change, and I watch my demeanor change, and I watch me go into a mode I shouldn't have been fighting in. I should have continued to go forward, I should have continued to pressure him, and press him."
"I thought that was exactly what he should have done," he said. "Would I have done that? No. But that's exactly what he should have done as a warrior. Jon said a couple things that stuck with me. "I don't feel sorry for him, this is combat.' It's true. He shouldn't feel sorry for me. He won on that night. He got his hand raised. He had the right type of attitude."
"In the Olympics, I did some things wrong," Cormier said. "Not dieting in the correct way, not always doing things right. This time I did. I thought all my ducks were in a row. I thought this time the stars were going to align for me and they didn't. So yeah, it was tough. I really did believe in my heart, I could get the job done. When it didn't, it was tough."
"I'm not over it, it will never be over," Cormier said. "I'm not a sore loser or anything, but nothing changed. There's no relationship between Jon and I, there won't be a relationship between Jon and I, I just hope that we can cross paths and not actually go after each other."
