Daniel Cormier Doesn’t Understand Why Fans Have Decided to Embrace Him
Fight fans seem to have changed their opinion over
Ultimate Fighting Championship light heavyweight king Daniel
Cormier over the years and the man known as “DC” is unsure what
he has done to go from someone who gets booed out of a building to
the recent ovation he received at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center.
“I don’t know what I did,” Cormier said during a media tour (transcript courtesy of MMAfighting.com) promoting “The Ultimate Fighter 27” on Tuesday. “I didn’t really do anything. I did the exact same thing. They decide when they like you and when they don’t.”
Cormier believes the issue fans have had with him in the past
intensified when he started his rivalry with former Jon Jones.
Although the perception of Jones has changed over the years as he
went from issues to issue, Cormier understands how fickle fights
fans can be and has decided to just accept the love and run with
it.
“When I went out there that first time and they booed me with Jon [Jones], I just played the bad guy,” Cormier said. “I will say all the stuff you hate me saying. You hate that I make fun of [Jon Jones] for his addictions? I will say every one of those addictions and I’ll list them all out. Before it was like, I don’t think they’ll boo me for it. Okay, you’ll boo me for it? You don’t like that? I’d kind of feel out what people liked and didn’t like. And the things I got the most hate, on Twitter, I would start to say it in public. If you want me to be your bad guy, I’ll be your bad guy. I just kind of gauge it.”
Cormier understands the fine line in the trash talking game and how much it has become a mainstay in selling a fight in modern mixed martial arts. He also knows if he played the bad guy like he did in his fight with Jones against his current opponent Stipe Miocic, who he meets at UFC 226 and coaches against on “TUF 27,” the fan the fans aren’t going to buy in.
“If it’s not genuine, people can see through that,” Cormier said. “If I start putting on that I hate Stipe Miocic, after going to Cleveland and doing a show on him and being around him and being friends with him, all of a sudden I hate him, people will be like ‘what, that makes no sense.’ That might actually turn people off from watching the fight, ‘this is too fake I can’t deal with it.’ I want to give a true accounting of what I am and what Stipe and I’s relationship truly is.”
“People just decide what they want to do,” Cormier said. “Going into the Jones fight, it was all boos. And then going into Boston, it was all cheers. Then when I went to that press conference in Brooklyn, cheers. They put me on the camera and for the first time, people yelled positive stuff. Usually they just boo me. I didn’t care. I just get used to it.”
Cormier is just embracing the fact he is still relevant as a fighter regardless if fans cheer or boo him and is revelling in it.
“You’re never going to tell people how to feel,” Cormier said. “I used to try to do that. If you told me there’s something you don’t like, I’m going to harp on that thing. I want a reaction. Whether it is positive or negative, I just want you to not be indifferent. As long as you care, that’s good.”
“I don’t know what I did,” Cormier said during a media tour (transcript courtesy of MMAfighting.com) promoting “The Ultimate Fighter 27” on Tuesday. “I didn’t really do anything. I did the exact same thing. They decide when they like you and when they don’t.”
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“When I went out there that first time and they booed me with Jon [Jones], I just played the bad guy,” Cormier said. “I will say all the stuff you hate me saying. You hate that I make fun of [Jon Jones] for his addictions? I will say every one of those addictions and I’ll list them all out. Before it was like, I don’t think they’ll boo me for it. Okay, you’ll boo me for it? You don’t like that? I’d kind of feel out what people liked and didn’t like. And the things I got the most hate, on Twitter, I would start to say it in public. If you want me to be your bad guy, I’ll be your bad guy. I just kind of gauge it.”
Cormier understands the fine line in the trash talking game and how much it has become a mainstay in selling a fight in modern mixed martial arts. He also knows if he played the bad guy like he did in his fight with Jones against his current opponent Stipe Miocic, who he meets at UFC 226 and coaches against on “TUF 27,” the fan the fans aren’t going to buy in.
“If it’s not genuine, people can see through that,” Cormier said. “If I start putting on that I hate Stipe Miocic, after going to Cleveland and doing a show on him and being around him and being friends with him, all of a sudden I hate him, people will be like ‘what, that makes no sense.’ That might actually turn people off from watching the fight, ‘this is too fake I can’t deal with it.’ I want to give a true accounting of what I am and what Stipe and I’s relationship truly is.”
“People just decide what they want to do,” Cormier said. “Going into the Jones fight, it was all boos. And then going into Boston, it was all cheers. Then when I went to that press conference in Brooklyn, cheers. They put me on the camera and for the first time, people yelled positive stuff. Usually they just boo me. I didn’t care. I just get used to it.”
Cormier is just embracing the fact he is still relevant as a fighter regardless if fans cheer or boo him and is revelling in it.
“You’re never going to tell people how to feel,” Cormier said. “I used to try to do that. If you told me there’s something you don’t like, I’m going to harp on that thing. I want a reaction. Whether it is positive or negative, I just want you to not be indifferent. As long as you care, that’s good.”
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