Daniel Cormier looks primed and ready to beat the crap out of Jake Paul…but only in the Octagon.
The former UFC light heavyweight and heavyweight champion had to be separated from Paul after he went face-to-face with YouTube star at UFC 261.
On Monday, Cormier addressed the incident on ESPN, explaining that it was almost surreal to actually run into Paul after they had previously had words.
“There are a lot of things that I can handle in my life,” Cormier said. “One, is like I feel like this guy’s being like that, disrespectful, talking in a way that I don’t feel he would do to my face. I can’t deal with that. So I was sitting at the table and somebody was like, ‘Jake Paul’s here.’ So I look behind me and he’s like making faces at me and waving at me. I’m like, ‘What in the world is happening?’
He claims that Paul didn’t have much to say back to him until security entered the picture.
“This guy’s being so ridiculous, I need to tell him something,” Cormier said. “So I just walk over there and he kind of leans in like we’re going to have a conversation and his hands were in his pocket. I said, ‘Hey, I’m not gonna play your games. Don’t mess with me.’ I’m not a kid to play with like this. I’m not gonna be on the internet, messing around and all this other stuff. I go, ‘Keep my name out of your mouth.’
“And then security came and once the security got around he started to play big boy a little bit, starts trying to point and do all that. But initially his hands were in his pocket and he kind of leans in and I say, ‘I’m not gonna play your game.’ I said, ‘You’re gonna get yourself hurt messing around. I’m not gonna fight with you and play those public shenanigans.’ I go, ‘Keep my name out of your mouth.’ He said, ‘Well, you said my name first.’ I said, ‘Don’t play with me. Don’t play with me. I’m not a kid to me messing around with like that.’”
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Cormier admits that if their confrontation had happened elsewhere, things would’ve ended badly for Paul.
“I wanted to grab his face,” Cormier said. “I was gonna grab him by the face, but I would have got in trouble by the UFC. Listen, a kid like that, you alpha a kid like that. You alpha him. I wanted to grab him by the face and smash him to the ground, but I can’t do that at work, I would have got into a lot of trouble. So I just went over there and tried to have a conversation with the kid and then security comes and all that and he’s like, ‘Sign the contract.’ I’m like, ‘Come on. Sign the contract, what are you talking about, ‘sign the contract?’’ What contract are you referring to? ‘Oh, sign the contract.’ What are you talking about? There is no contract.
“You don’t punch down to go do all that, but come on, dude. You can talk and act like that with certain people. Not everybody. Not everybody’s gonna do that. You start messing with certain people, they’re gonna tell you about what they’re feeling.”
Cormier has no interest in fighting Paul as he stated it doesn’t compare to Conor McGregor’s massive boxing match with Floyd Mayweather because Paul has nowhere near the athletic accomplishments of Mayweather.
“I don’t want to fight Jake Paul,” Cormier said. “But I’m not gonna let Jake Paul disrespect me. Let me tell you one thing about Jake Paul and I’ll refer back to the Conor McGregor deal. Conor went to fight Floyd, made a ton of money, because he had to. Floyd Mayweather is the greatest boxer of all time, so you go play on his playing field. Why would I go and box Jake Paul? Who I am doesn’t make me chase anything. I made my money as the heavyweight champion of the world. I don’t have to chase a payday.
“This kid wants to fight, okay, I’ll fight him. But it will be a mixed martial arts competition. If he wants to actually fight with me, fight me in mixed martial arts and then I’ll fight him all the way down at 205. I’m living fat and happy and healthy, I’ll go all the way down to 205 to fight this kid in mixed martial arts. If you really want to fight me, like seriously fight me, fight me in mixed martial arts. This is not going to be fun. I’m telling you right now, at 42 years old, bad back and everything, I’m going to torture him and I’m going to hurt him. I don’t want to box him, I don’t want to fight in a limited skill set of rules. If you want to fight me, you really want to fight me, fight me in a mixed martial arts competition. I’ll go all the way back to 205 and I’m going to smash him and I’m going to hurt him and then he can go back to fighting these YouTube kids.
“But don’t think for a second that I would ever chase a payday in boxing because I don’t need it. I’m good. I made my money as the champion of the world. If you want to really fight me, you got an issue with me, fight me in mixed martial arts and I’m going to torture you and I’m going to rip his face apart and I’m gonna hurt the kid. I will teach these kids not to continue to do this with people like me, athletes. I will hurt the kid.”
