Daniel Cormier had to miss his shot at Olympic gold in 2008 when his kidneys failed in Beijing. It nearly killed him. Cormier was cutting weight to compete at 211 lbs.

The symptoms of Acute Renal Failure (ARF) include dry mouth, lack of urine, headache, lower back pain, nausea, and drowsiness. ARF can be treated with fluids and a quick rehydration, but it can also become Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) if the fighter's kidneys give out from the strain.

"It was very scary," Cormier told USA TODAY Sports. "I was in the hospital. I was getting IV bags, not really eating food. I couldn't recover from the weight cut."

"I had been cutting weight for a really long time. I think I started when I was 13, but I was doing it the wrong way. I put (a plastic sweatsuit) on a week before I weighed in, and I would just start sucking out that water. ... Your body can only take so much. I was beating it down every time. It was very scary."

Great information that should be passed on to every coach. There is cutting weight the right way and then there is putting your own life in danger cutting weight. Too many wrestlers do not understand this and the damages it can do to their bodies.

now he is trying to cut to 205...so that may be interesting

Cormier now plans to fight a lightheavyweight. While trying to make 205 for someone who nearly died trying to make 211 might seem terrifying, nutrition and training guru Mike Dolce says it would be no problem.

"He was banned from competing in that Olympics and he was already over there and he had such a bad weight cut that he was banned and they wouldn't allow him to compete because of that weight cut," Dolce told FightHype. "I was speaking to Daniel and we went over that entire situation and again I saw the flaws in their methods. According to his training now and what his body weight is right now, we make the adjustments that I know that I have in my arsenal and I think 205 will be easy for Daniel to where I don't know anybody in the world that would be able to stand up to him and compete against him in the weight class."

In an interview with the Brazilian site Sexto Round, Dolce explanded on the remarks.

"Daniel can be a world champion at heavyweight, but also at light heavyweight, 205," said Dolce as transcribed by MMAFighting. "Unfortunately I was not working with him when he was training and competing in the Olympics. If I was, he would have made weight, had no problem, been healthy and he probably would have been an Olympic gold medalist."