UFC light-heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier has revealed that bantamweight rivals Dominick Cruz and Cody Garbrandt almost got into a fight backstage at UFC 202 in August.
“Dominick Cruz and Cody Garbrandt ran into each other when Cody was about to fight Takeya Mizugaki at UFC 202 in Las Vegas,” Cormier told independent.co.uk.
“Dominick and I were actually doing our co-commentary, which is right next to the Octagon. Dominick and Cody passed each other and both came face to face. Cody is in a nice suit and Dominick is in a nice suit. And these two guys are in each others face now.
“All of our bosses from the UFC and the TV bosses were there, but no one knew what to do. Everyone just kind of stood back.
“It got to the point that I thought I had to get in the middle and separate those two guys. If it wasn’t for me at UFC 202, I think Dominick and Cody would’ve fought in August because none of our bosses and TV crew was willing to actually get in the middle of two 135-pound men.
“I thought that was funny because these are big guys, these aren’t little guys back there backstage. But they all stood there with their hands in their pockets not sure how to break it up and stop the fight. And I ended it up stopping it. I actually made them wait for UFC 207.”
The two rivals don’t have much longer until they’ll finally be able to settle their differences in the Octagon, as their co-main event clash takes place in Las Vegas on December 30th as the lead-in to another pivotal title bout between woman’s 135lb champion Amanda Nunes and Ronda Rousey.
