Daniel Cormier is not buying what Alex Pereira is selling.
On Wednesday, the former two-division UFC champ tweeted that he was “disheartened” because the UFC “played with me” after a message he allegedly received from he promotion. Shortly thereafter, Pereira posted on his Instagram page that he was “hacked,” and that he has a “great relationship with UFC.”
On his show Good Guy/Bad Guy with Chael Sonnen, Cormier believes Pereira isn’t being honest about what happened earlier this week.
“First off, Pereira’s a liar,” Cormier said. “Pereira did not get hacked [on Wednesday]. Pereira might’ve tweeted something, and then somebody called him and was like, ‘Yo, calm down. Let’s chill.’
“I don’t believe the hack thing, bro. It’s too convenient. It was too specific. I’m saying it publicly.”
The conversation came up when the two former fighters discussed Hunter Campbell’s trip to Dagestan to meet with lightweight champion Islam Makhachev and his team. While details about the meeting weren’t made public, the assumption is that Campbell, Makhaehev, and the champ’s management met about his next move — which UFC CEO confirmed during the UFC 315 press conference will be made clear following the welterweight title fight between Belal Muhammad and Jack Della Maddalena on Saturday.
Cormier guesses that the one of the more powerful men in the UFC didn’t just go to Dagestan to meet with just one current champion under that particular managerial umbrella — hence, why Pereira, who lost the light heavyweight title to Magomed Ankalaev in March at UFC 313, could’ve vented frustration publicly on social media.
“So my thought is while Hunter was there to meet Islam, guess who else Rizvan Magomedov manages? … he also manages Ankalaev,” Cormier explained. “This just me hoop dreaming: While he’s in Dagastan, he’s speaking to Islam about the fight… he goes, ‘What about you Ankalaev? Are you available?’ Ankalaev is like, ‘OK, I can fight,’ and then you go to Pereira and go, ‘Pereira, are you available?’ And Alex is like, ‘Well it’s a short time to get ready.’ ‘OK, Alex, we’re going to give somebody else this title fight.’
“[Then] Alex gets mad, goes to the internet, puts that up there, gets a call going, ‘Hey man.’ That’s my thought. That’s what happened. So, yes, while Hunter was in Dagestan, I think it was a two-for-one call. … I think he spoke to Magomed and he spoke to Islam.
“I don’t know this as fact, but I know this game enough to put that together and feel pretty confidently to say it on ESPN.”
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