Daniel Cormier has admitted he was upset with Tom Aspinall for including a private conversation he had with the heavyweight champion after a one-on-one interview they had leading up to his UFC 321 fight with Ciryl Gane on Saturday.
After the interview had concluded, the former two-division champion DC approached Aspinall in hushed tones and told him how he had a great opportunity to remain champion for an extended period.
The problem is that Cormier then went on to diss one of Aspinall’s potential opponents Jailton Almeida, stating that, “he can’t fight,” while also appearing dismissive of Alexander Volkov’s chances. And not done there, Cormier also likened it to his own title run, specifically namechecking Volkan Oezdemir as someone he clearly felt was an easy title challenger to beat.
DC didn’t realize that Aspinall was still mic’d up for his own behind-the-scenes YouTube content at the time, but even so Its easy to see why these kind of comments were meant to remain private.
Neverthless, the following day the champion’s camp did post up a video that leaked DC’s comments, and he’s not happy about it.
“I was literally trying to tell him you could possibly be on the verge of something tremendously special right now,” Cormier said on the Good Guy/Bad Guy show. “In that statement, I was saying Jailton’s going to grapple you. It’s not as dangerous a fight. I could have done a better job of saying that to Tom.
“Now I was a little upset that Tom and them released that, if I’m being honest with you. I thought when you lean into someone and you’re talking quietly, that’s a private conversation that should stay between you and the athlete. I thought it was Embedded, and I know that Embedded would never do something like that.”
Cormier went on to acknowledge that he regrets his comment regarding Almeida, although in hindsight his comment has more significance given that the Brazilian fighter lost his fight against Alexander Volkov at the weekend due to completely lacking any kind of offense, despite having long spells of control on the mat.
“Regardless of what you’re saying, whether you’re saying it in jest or you’re being honest, Jailton Almeida deserves respect, and I do respect him and I feel bad,” Cormier admitted. “He’s been so nice to me since he got into the UFC, and I think Jailton Almeida’s a great guy.
“I think that he does need to round out his game. Because the grappling is elite, but there’s no damage. Even Dana [White] went up there after the fight and was like ‘I’m so glad that Volkov won because you don’t just get to take somebody down and hold them down.”
“You sign up to go fight,” Cormier continued. “You have to fight. You really just have to go out there and fight. I think Jailton’s going to watch that last fight and be very upset about that performance and not getting the decision.”
