Daniel Cormier was nearly stripped of his UFC title in 2017.
The former two-division UFC champion and two-time Olympian in freestyle wrestling is considered one of the greatest combat sport athletes of all time.
Cormier became the light heavyweight champion in 2015 after longtime rival Jon Jones was stripped of the title due to a hit-and-run arrest.
Cormier’s light heavyweight title reign was nearly cut short in 2017 after he missed weight on his first attempt at the UFC 210 weigh-ins for his title defense against the late, great Anthony ‘Rumble’ Johnson.
Minutes after coming in 1.2 lbs over the weight limit, Cormier used an old wrestling trick and held onto the towel to make championship weight at 205 lbs.
It’s been over eight years since DC’s ‘towel gate’ took place and he knows exactly who to blame for the most embarrassing moment of his career.
Daniel Cormier blames Luke Rockhold for infamous ‘towel gate’
Cormier didn’t blame the weight scale or the commission for his initial weight miss at UFC 210.
For Cormier, the fault goes to his teammate, former UFC middleweight champion and ladies’ man Luke Rockhold.
“Guess whose fault it was?” Cormier told Aljamain Sterling on his YouTube channel.
“Luke Rockhold,” Cormier went on to explain.
“I’m at Buffalo University running. It was so cold. I had this draft coming in as I’m on the treadmill. I’m losing the weight, and it’s coming off, but it’s harder.
“So I’m, like, five [pounds] over. I tell Luke Rockhold, I go, I probably should get about two more pounds off before I leave.
“Luke had a girl lined up,” Cormier said of Rockhold.
“He wants nothing more than to leave the gym. So he convinces me. Everybody’s like, no, you gotta lose more weight. And then I look at Luke, and he’s like, he’s fine, let him go.
“I’m like, yo, we should listen to Luke.
“So, I listen to that moron and I left. That’s what happened, bro,”
“I hope whoever it was, was worth it to Luke because I had to have the most embarrassing moment in my career,” Cormier admitted.
If Cormier missed championship weight, he would have been stripped of the title like Charles Oliveira at UFC 274.
Jon Jones called Daniel Cormier a cheat for towel gate
Jon Jones took a shot at Cormier following his controversial weigh-in and win over Anthony Johnson.
Jones recreated Cormier’s weigh-in photo with his team and held onto a towel. This was right before Jones’ rematch against Cormier at UFC 214 in July 2017.
“All the discipline and hard work is definitely paying off, was a mean 217lbs today after practice,” Jones wrote on Instagram.
“#NoShortcutsToGreatness #Earnit #CheatingA——,” Jones added.
Not too long after he wrote this, Jones tested positive for the steroid Turinabol and his title win over Cormier at UFC 214 was overturned to a no-contest.
“Ironic hash tags,” one fan commented on Jones’ post.