Daniel Cormier has received backlash after minimizing Alex Pereira’s knock out victory over Sean Strickland at UFC 276.
Following his knockout of Strickland, Pereira shot up to #6 in the middleweight rankings. The Brazilian is now expected to meet champion Israel Adesanya, who he defeated twice in kickboxing.
While most fans and analysts were delighted with Pereira’s highlight-reel knockout, UFC commentator Daniel Cormier sensed the cloud in the otherwise perfect situation.
Speaking on the DC & RC podcast, Cormier gave a less-than-flattering assessment of Pereira’s most recent victory and his overall UFC career.
Cormier said:
“The UFC matchmaking [inaudible] perfect with this guy. Because they never let him fight a Marvin Vettori or anyone that can stymie him and hold him against the side of the octagon. And now you get him vs. Izzy.”
Cormier also emphasized that viewers shouldn’t draw too many conclusions from Pereira’s victories against Adesanya in kickboxing.
Cormier added:
“But I want to tell people RC, ‘Don’t get too lost in the results of the first fight [Adesanya vs. Pereira]. Izzy was beating him in the second fight.”
“Izzy was winning the second fight and got knocked out. So go back and watch that kickboxing fight before we rush to judgement and rush to expectation of what Alex Pereira can do to Israel Adesanya.”
Now, Pereira has retaliated against Daniel Cormier with an Instagram story that has since been removed. The story made fun of his consecutive defeats to Jon Jones. Cormier and Jones’ rivalry has been one of the longest-running and most acrimonious in UFC history.
The Instagram post includes a picture of Cormier sobbing as Joe Rogan interviews him after his second loss against Jones. The speech bubble above Joe Rogan reads,
“Cormier, how much is 1 +1?”. The caption for the story reads, “the guy is frustrated with 2-0.”