Daniel Cormier sheds light on what Alex Pereira had to say to him about a potential Dricus du Plessis matchup
Alex Pereira was caught in the crosshairs of Dricus du Plessis' post-fight speech after his sophomore middleweight title defense at UFC 312 and the Brazilian knockout artist has offered a response of sorts. This response comes through an interaction that Pereira had with Daniel Cormier who was in the booth calling the action for the Sydney-based pay-per-view.
Pereira was in the corner of former opponent and current training partner Sean Strickland who fell short in his second fight with du Plessis and also in his attempt to become a two-time champion at 185 pounds.
Cormier recently spoke on his YouTube channel about what the reigning UFC light heavyweight champion thought about the victorious UFC middleweight champion calling him out after going 2-0 over Strickland on Saturday. When addressing his interaction with Pereira after he told him about du Plessis indicating he wanted a throwdown with the 205-pound kingpin, Cormier said:
"Pereira goes, 'hes just too small' Seriously. Pereira goes, 'This man is just too small'... Alex is huge though. He looked massive compared to Dricus. And I love that Dricus has these big goals. I just think he has work to do at middleweight before he starts thinking about going up. Khamzat Chimaev being problem number one."
Check out Daniel Cormier's comments below (3:55):
Alex Pereira gets called out by boogeyman at 205 pounds
Alex Pereira is no stranger to being called out these days and his next locked-in dance partner has fired some shots at him recently. Magomed Ankalaev will contend for Pereira's light heavyweight belt in the main event of UFC 313 next month.
The 37-year-old facing Ankalaev for the light heavyweight belt has been long anticipated by many fans with the latter firing off some shots on social media as of late at Alex Pereira. Taking to his personal X platform and spreading his message across multiple tweets, Ankalaev stated:
"I never wanna hurt someone in my life like I want hurt Alex. He is a fake humble boy... I've been climbing mountain, chopping wood, swimming in freezing lake and Alex been dancing and making video like Tik Tok chick."
'Poatan' looks to notch his fourth consecutive title defense in this outing while Ankalaev looks to make good on his sophomore bid at the 205-pound bout falling a draw against Jan Blachowicz in a prior clash for the then-vacant title.