Daniel Cormier was the man in the middle of all the post-fight madness at UFC 312.
Dricus du Plessis broke Sean Strickland’s nose during a lopsided decision win on Saturday night.
After defending his belt, the middleweight champion aimed a call out at light heavyweight king Alex Pereira, who was sitting cageside with Israel Adesanya at the Qudos Arena in Sydney, Australia.
‘DC’ tried and failed to maintain control when he was tasked with interviewing the fighters after the UFC 312 main event.
- READ MORE: Dricus du Plessis is 100 percent sure who Sean Strickland will fight next: ‘It will be amazing’
Daniel Cormier provides inside info from UFC 312
After he was done interviewing the fighters, Daniel Cormier bumped into Pereira at cageside.
The former dual-weight UFC champion got his immediate reaction to du Plessis calling him out.
“Dricus du Plessis is the man. In the Octagon, he called out Pereira,” Cormier said on his YouTube channel.
“I told Pereira. After the fight, I go, ‘He wants you, Pereira’.
“Pereira goes, ‘He’s just too small’. Seriously! Pereira goes, ‘This man is just too small’.
“Alex is huge, though. I mean, he looked massive compared to Dricus.
“I love that Dricus has these big goals. I just think he still has work at middleweight before he thinks about going up. Khamzat Chimaev being problem number one.”
Dricus du Plessis and Alex Pereira clash backstage at UFC 312
Pereira is booked to defend his belt against top contender Magomed Ankalaev at UFC 313 on March 8.
A clash with du Plessis is not on the cards right now, but that hasn’t stopped them from agreeing to fight.
The two men came together to discuss their potential super-fight during a brief backstage conversation.
At his post-fight press conference, du Plessis was asked for his take on what had happened when he met Pereira, who wasn’t entirely sure if he’d been called out by the middleweight champion at first.
“Yeah he came up and said ‘Did you challenge me?’” he explained. “I was like ‘I did the whole movie scene and everything’ and then he’s like ‘Did you challenge me?’ That’s kind of anti-climactic but sure, yes.
“I said ‘Yeah, I did challenge you’ but I do have the world of respect for Alex Pereira. I think he’s the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world, I have the most respect for him and what he’s done in a short period of time in the UFC.
“To come from another sport and what he’s done there is incredible. But I want to share the Octagon with that man and I’ve beaten Adesanya who has beaten him, I know I can beat him, and at 205lb, 100 percent.”