Former two-division UFC champion Daniel Cormier has spoken out about the now infamous ‘towel-gate’ moment during the weigh-ins for his title fight with Anthony Johnson at UFC 210 back in 2017, and blames the whole predicament on his training partner Luke Rockhold.

The moment in question saw DC initially came in overweight for the fight on his first attempt. however, he quickly returned to the scale and proceeded to make the 205lb limit – but only because he managed to use the towel being stretched out in front of him to his advantage to help manipulate the scales.

Reflecting on how it all went down, Cormier says that it actually all goes back to Rockhold being overly-eager to go on a date rather than help him cut weight.

“I’m at Buffalo University running, but I was in front of this shed, you know those barn doors where you roll them up? Those shed doors? It’s like a metal door, and it was so cold,” Cormier recalls. “So I had this draft coming in as I’m on the treadmill. Bro, I’m losing the weight and it’s coming [off], but it’s harder. So I’m like five over, and I tell Luke Rockhold, ‘I should probably get two more pounds off before I leave.’

“Luke had a girl lined up. He wants nothing more than to leave the gym, so he convinces me – [and] it’s not hard because I’m feeling like I’m feeling. I want someone to tell me to go. And everybody’s like, ‘No, you got to lose more weight,’ and I look at Luke and he’s like, ‘He’s fine, let him go.’ I’m like, ‘Yo, we should listen to Luke.’ And 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 then I had to have the most embarrassing moment of my career.”

To this day some still marvel at the fact that DC’s towel grab wasn’t spotted by officials when he did eventually step onto the scale, but he admits everything just fell into place for him to do the dastardly deed.

“It went down low, to like 203,” Cormier recalls of the scale as he craftily rested his hands on the towel. “But you know what the problem was? They had the scale on the floor. That’s why now it’s like right in front of you, so the commission can look down and still see what you’re doing. But, bro, the scale was on the floor… it was this lady and this guy – it’s so funny – so for some reason this lady’s on the floor. She’s like on her knees looking at the scale, probably because it went to 203.

“And then the guy looks and he’s on the floor, too. So the two commissioners are on the floor. I look down at them and I’m like, ‘Wait a minute.’ I was like, ‘Wait, what?’ They were on the floor. Bro, it was a nightmare. My strength coach was the one holding the towel. How does your coach get to hold the towel? It was a mess, bro.”