UFC president Dana White shared his reaction to the beef between superstar MMA fighter Alex Pereira and UFC commentator Daniel Cormier.
Pereira has made accusations that Cormier of pushing a narrative for the UFC to book a heavyweight title bout between Ciryl Gane and Josh Hokit instead of giving Pereira the rematch against Gane for the belt.
White, however, pushed back on those accusations, labeling Pereira as “paranoid.”
Dana White Pushes Back Against Alex Pereira Over Perceived Daniel Cormier Slight
Speaking to the media following episode 10 of DWCS Season 10, White pushed back against Pereira’s conspiracy theory about Cormier, reiterating once again that the UFC does not tell its commentators what to say.
“Of course that’s not true. These guys are the most paranoid people on the planet. I’ve never told DC (Cormier) to do anything, ever. It doesn’t work like that. We don’t operate like that. We’ve got over 700 guys under contract. We talk about two of them being sideways right now. This is normal when you’re in this business,” White said (via MMAjunkie.com).
“First of all, I’ve never told Rogan or DC or any of these guys to say anything about anybody. As a longtime fan of the fight business, I actually can’t stand the commentators saying negative things about fighters or anything like that, but I don’t tell anybody what to say. I don’t tell the fighters what to say. I don’t tell the commentators what to say. This thing just all plays out organically in the way that the fights are called and whatever they say when they walk out of here and interview with you guys tonight. We don’t police any of that stuff. If we did, Sean Strickland would have been gone three (expletive) years ago, and we wouldn’t even be having this conversation.”
Alex Pereira Not Happy With Daniel Cormier
It’s pretty clear that Pereira is not happy with Cormier, but he should be more unhappy with the UFC matchmakers, as they are the ones who book the fights.
Cormier, for his part, has refuted any accusations that he has been pushing a narrative against Pereira, as he’s stated that he’s a huge fan of “Poatan” and that he wasn’t trying to say anything negative about him or put him in a negative light.
However, Cormier has said that he does think that Hokit deserves the UFC heavyweight title fight against Gane more, and he’s also said that he thinks Alexander Volkov could have also gotten the next title shot against Gane first, too.
The best thing for Pereira right now is to go out there at UFC 335, knock out Sergei Pavlovich, and prove to White and the UFC that he is deserving of getting the next title shot against the winner of Gane vs. Hokit. That’s the best way for Pereira to get the next heavyweight title shot and potentially reach his goal of becoming the first fighter in UFC history to win a belt in three different weight classes, something no one else has ever done.
Dana White Reacts to Beef Between Alex Pereira & Daniel Cormier