YouTube channel<\/a>, rejecting the idea that he was being told what to say.<\/p>\n\u201cAlex Pereira is one of the best fighters we have seen in a very long time,\u201d Cormier said. \u201cAlex Pereira is a middleweight champion, a light heavyweight champion, and a guy that\u2019s now fights in the heavyweight division. Alex Pereira and I have built a relationship over the past five years that he\u2019s been here. I believe that it\u2019s a great relationship, and I believe that it\u2019s a friendship.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut today, I was given something by Luis: Pereira did an interview, and he said some things, and I think a lot of it is just a bit confusing to me. One, it\u2019s a bout the Josh Hokit-Ciryl Gane fight, but that doesn\u2019t necessarily bother me much at all. It\u2019s not true, though.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was not told by the UFC to promote this as the fight to happen. I will tell you why I think that was the fight to happen, after some fact-checking. \u2026 Again, I have nothing against Alex Pereira. If anything, I consider him a buddy of mine. We\u2019ve had some great moments, we\u2019ve had some great interviews, we\u2019ve had some great interactions.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pereira\u2019s issues with Cormier were not just restricted to the Gane-Hokit fight, though. He also claimed that Cormier told him he wouldn\u2019t be the champion had he beaten Gane at UFC White House, which seemed to bother Pereira. But Cormier also rejected this.<\/p>\n
\u201cGuys, that\u2019s not what happened,\u201d Cormier said. \u201cThis was before the White House card, and Alex asked me through Plinio [Cruz, Pereira\u2019s translator], if he won, would he be the GOAT? [Cormier plays a video showing the interaction he goes on to describe].<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t say he wouldn\u2019t be the champ; I said he wouldn\u2019t be the GOAT, yet. I\u2019m honest. I don\u2019t lie to these guys. I don\u2019t sugarcoat to these guys. But I said if he was to win, defend the belt, yeah, we\u2019d have the conversation. But I also said, of course, if he beats Ciryl Gane, he\u2019d be the champion. But I did say that he would be in the conversation. \u2026 But I also think that could just be a miscommunication. We don\u2019t talk the same language, all those things.\u201d<\/p>\n
The whole issue seems to boil down to Pereira wanting a rematch with Gane. Since UFC White House, Poatan has lobbied for a do-over, saying Gane cheated with illegal blows to the back of his head while finishing the fight. And Cormier thinks that perhaps Pereira isn\u2019t approaching this situation in the right way.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think he\u2019s a bit misguided in how he\u2019s approaching it,\u201d Cormier said. \u201cBecause he\u2019s trying to get this rematch, and I really don\u2019t know what he wants to base this immediate rematch on, outside of possibly the strikes to the back of the head. If he\u2019s building his case on, \u2018I deserve this rematch based on him finishing me in Round 2 with illegal strikes,\u2019 maybe. But outside of that one thing, there really isn\u2019t much to warrant him getting an immediate title fight.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would suggest that his history in fighting, his championship \u2014 double champion \u2014 and the fights that he\u2019s had allowed him to jump to heavyweight and fight for the belt before other guys. But if I would have lost when I went up to fight Stipe the first time, I don\u2019t imagine that I could have asked for an immediate rematch. I just don\u2019t. Especially when I don\u2019t have anything to base it on. Because if it isn\u2019t based on the illegal strikes, then is it based on, \u2018I just want this. I just want the rematch.\u2019 I don\u2019t know. I need Alex to tell me what he is basing this request on.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen it comes to the fight with Josh Hokit, I said he should get the title fight, and there are a number of reasons why. \u2026 Josh Hokit has won those two early fights, and his third fight, a year into the UFC, they put him in there with the No. 5-ranked guy in the world, Curtis Blaydes, and that was one of the best heavyweight fights we\u2019ve ever seen. Then he beat Derrick Lewis, who has fought for the title twice and is ranked inside the top 10. He\u2019s got two top 10 wins, in a division that doesn\u2019t have that much depth.<\/p>\n
\u201cLook, it could have been Volkov, because Volkov already has a history with Ciryl Gane. But even that, even if it wasn\u2019t Hokit, they probably would have went with Volkov.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pereira doesn\u2019t have time to dwell on this, though, because instead of rematching Gane, the former two-division champion is set to fight Sergei Pavlovich at UFC 335 in December. And if he wins that fight, then Cormier believes he will ultimately get what he\u2019s after.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow, Pereira goes and wins his fight, I would definitely say he deserves to fight the winner,\u201d Cormier said. \u201cI just don\u2019t know that the result at the White House helps him in any way, shape, or form to be fighting for the belt immediately. But I didn\u2019t say he wasn\u2019t gonna be the champion. I actually said quite the opposite: that if he won, he would be in the GOAT conversation, with two guys I admire greatly in Demetrious \u2018Mighty Mouse\u2019 Johnson and Georges St-Pierre. So I just don\u2019t want the conversation changing, because now it feels like we are not aligned in terms of our views, when in reality, I have been a big advocate for Alex Pereira at every single step. \u2026<\/p>\n
\u201cI just have to chalk this quote up to a miscommunication and a language barrier.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Daniel Cormier thinks there might be some sort of miscommunication going on with Alex Pereira. Next month, Ciryl…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":927272,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,1347,785,85,787,1396],"class_list":["post-927271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-latest-news","tag-mma","tag-sports","tag-ufc","tag-ufc-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/927271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=927271"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/927271\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/927272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=927271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=927271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=927271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}