Daniel Cormier’s victory over Anderson Silva at UFC 200 might not have been the most exciting performance in the light-heavyweight champion’s career, but it was a dominant victory nonetheless. Donald Cerrone, a welterweight contender and teammate Cormier’s rival Jon Jones, however, found some strong words of criticism for the champion. He even mindlessly garnished it with a homophobic slur, for which he later apologized.
Despite the apology, Cormier put “Cowboy” on blast during the latest episode of The MMA Hour.
“My reaction to Donald is shut up. Has he lost his mind?” he said (Transcription via MMAFighting.com). “I mean, what was this guy talking about? Donald Cerrone, who made you the person… on what ground does he stand on to be able to say something like that to someone like me?”
Cormier’s biggest problem with Cerrone obviously doesn’t seem to be the brash criticism in itself, but the fact that “Cowboy” didn’t tell him to his face what he thought of his performance.
“He can tell me stuff. If he had a problem with the way I performed, he could have told me in the back that day. ‘DC, it wasn’t a very good fight, man, I didn’t like it.’ But to do it publicly? Who are you? Are you the greatest fighter of all times? Are you the guy that went out there and got stopped in the first round by Anthony Pettis, that kick in the side and fell down? Are you the guy that got dominated by dos Anjos in the first round, where you just fell down?”
Besides Nate Diaz, former lightweight champions Rafael dos Anjos and Anthony Pettis have been the only two fighters to beat Cerrone in the UFC, and both hold first-round finished over the 33-year old Colorado native.
“I’ve been nothing but a gentleman to that guy, and he just likes to talk,” Cormier continued. “Maybe he was drinking a little bit, I don’t know. But who is he to make that decision, and so rude about it? That’s a type of thing that’s upsetting.
“What are you doing? Who are you to say that you can say something like that? You beat a couple of guys and all of a sudden you walk around with that stupid cowboy hat… I’ll smack the side of your head with that stupid hat. I’ll actually have Khabib do that for me. I’ll ask Khabib to smack his head.”
Especially in light of the horrific attack in an Orlando night club a couple of weeks ago, Cormier feels that Cerrone’s comments were particularly crude, and promised that the both of them will have a serious face-to-face conversation, as soon as they cross paths again.
“It’s very disappointing, especially under those circumstances, with everything that happened in Orlando and everything, he uses that word and those terms,” Cormier said. “Man, nobody is exempt from just being like… you have to have some class, man. Hey, Donald, this isn’t the wild wild west where you can walk around with your stupid cowboy boots and your hat and spitting tobacco and just talking crazy. You have to have respect and carry yourself with some class.
“You don’t disrespect me like that. At the end of the day, I’m a man. When I see him, we’ll have some words, and we’ll discuss it.”
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