Daniel Cormier wants to make it clear that he was simply playing around with UFC light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira during a recently run-in, where the Brazilian won a friendly grappling duel against the former Olympia.
‘Poatan’ and Cormier had a brief wrestling duel backstage at UFC 301 media day, where the reigning champion took ‘DC’ down. The video of the friendly run-in spread like wildfire, with Pereira’s takedown of Cormier shocking a lot of folks.
Speaking on his Good Guy/Bad Guy show with Chael Sonnen, Cormier clarified that their interaction was simply in jest. DC acknowledged allowing the Brazilian to take him down in the viral video. He drew parallels to his wrestling sessions with Khabib, where he used to do light sparring because of the size difference between the two.
“You know what’s weird though man? I play around with these guys, and I’m getting taken down,” Cormier said. “There was a while back that people thought Khabib could actually take me down in a true wrestling situation. You know Chael, you always put the active guy over. That’s what you do as a person that’s done with the sport. What do I gain in trying to take down Alex Pereira? It just doesn’t work that way Chael.”
Pereira most recently competed at UFC 300, where he knocked Jamahal Hill out in the first round to defend his light heavyweight title.
In his nine UFC fights, the Brazilian has beaten 5 world champions, namely Israel Adesanya, Sean Strickland, Jan Blachowicz, Jiri Prochazka and Hill.
Should Daniel Cormier be added to the list as well?
