Daniel Cormier got an immediate reaction from Alex Pereira after he was called out by fellow UFC champ Dricus Du Plessis.
Du Plessis (23-2 MMA, 9-0 UFC) retained his middleweight title by defeating Sean Strickland (29-7 MMA, 16-7 UFC) a second time in Saturday’s UFC 312 headliner at Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney.
In his in octagon post-fight interview, Du Plessis called out UFC light heavyweight champion Pereira (12-2 MMA, 9-1 UFC), who was in Strickland’s corner. Cormier spoke to “Poatan” right after to get his thoughts on the challenge.
“Dricus Du Plessis is the man,” Cormier said on his YouTube channel. “In the octagon, he called out Pereira. I told Pereira after the fight, I go, ‘He wants you, Pereira.’ Pereira goes, ‘He’s just too small.’ Seriously. Pereira goes, ‘This man is just too small.’
“Alex is huge, though. I mean, he looked massive compared to Dricus. I love that Dricus has these big goals. I just think he still has work at middleweight before he thinks about going up – Khamzat Chimaev being problem No. 1.”
Du Plessis did say in the post-fight news conference that he wants to get past Khamzat Chimaev first before a potential move up to 205 pounds to challenge Pereira.
“Watching Dricus today, I don’t know that Chimaev just drives across the mat and takes him down,” Cormier said. “He’s so good at what he does. He’s the man. Dricus Du Plessis is the man, and once again, he proved that it’s going to be very difficult to take the belt off him. I know Chimaev has a massive following, and people like him. He’s been dominant, but I just don’t know that he has ever seen anyone like Du Plessis.”
Cormier admits he used to be a Du Plessis doubter – but not anymore.
“I’m done questioning him,” Cormier said. “I’m done ever saying that what he does isn’t what’s done by the best fighter in the world, because he is proving over and over again that he is just that. … The way Du Plessis fights makes you fight him the way that he wants to fight. He makes you stop, he makes you wait, because when you try to attack him, he’s so good at changing speed, changing direction and hitting you from odd angles that you can’t really get a bead on him.”
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