Alex Pereira hit back at Daniel Cormier for comments that minimized his win over Sean Strickland at UFC 276.
Pereira, previously unranked, climbed to No. 6 in the middleweight rankings after his Strickland KO. The Brazilian now looks set to face champion Israel Adesanya, a man he has beaten twice, once by KO, while the two fought in Glory Kickboxing.
While Strickland’s climactic KO undoubtedly impressed most fans, pundits and fighters alike. There was one man who saw a silver lining – UFC color commentator Daniel Cormier.
Speaking on the DC & RC Podcast, Cormier’s assessment of “Poatan’s” latest win and his UFC run thus far has been far from glowing.
“UFC matchmaking [inaudible] perfect with this guy,” Cormier said . “Because they never let him fight Marvin Vettori or anybody who could stop him and keep him on the side of the Octagon. And now you get him against Izzy.’
DC also pointed out that fans should not take too much from Pereira’s kickboxing victory over Adesanya.
“But I want to say to RC people, ‘Don’t get too lost in the results of the first game [Adesanya vs. Pereira],” Cormier said. “Izzy beat him in the second game. Izzy won the second fight and was eliminated. So go back and watch that kickboxing match before we rush to court and rush to see what Alex Pereira can do to Israel Adesanya.”
Alex Pereira applauds Daniel Cormier on Instagram
Now, Pereira has returned to DC with a since-deleted Instagram story mocking his back-to-back losses to Jon Jones. The rivalry between Cormier and Jones has been one of the longest and bitterest in UFC history. With the duo facing off twice – in 2015 and 2017.
The Instagram story includes a photo of Cormier crying. DC interview by Joe Rogan after his second loss to Jones. Translated from Portuguese, a speech bubble above Joe Rogan asked: “Cormier, what’s 1 + 1?”, complete with the caption “this guy is frustrated 2-0.”
