"Can you hide your bias a tiny bit?" - Justin Gaethje addresses his feud with Daniel Cormier

Daniel Cormier (left) and Justin Gaethje (right) [Left image courtesy: @dc_mma on Instagram]

Lightweight star Justin Gaethje spoke about his recent back-and-forth with Daniel Cormier over the commentator's overt bias towards his teammates.

In an interview with ESPN's Marc Raimondi, 'The Highlight' explained what irked him about Cormier's comments. The No.2-ranked UFC lightweight said:

"I was just calling out the blatant bias, you know. You have a job and you can't stay in the middle. So that's a problem and I got to call it out... I don't care what he thinks or says right now. This is about me, this is about my team, this is about Michael Chandler. That's all irrelevant. Just watching the interview I was like, 'Holy shit! Suck it harder, man. Can you hide your bias a tiny bit?' That was my thought process that night and then I went to bed and I didn't think about it since then."

Gaethje took exception to Cormier, who dismissed his upcoming fight with Michael Chandler at UFC 268. According to the former two-division champion, his American Kickboxing Academy (AKA) teammate Islam Makhachev deserves a title shot over Gaethje and Chandler.

Give @MAKHACHEVMMA the title fight! I don’t even need to see who wins next week. This dude just killed it. Khabib said this was his MSG moment and boy did he not deliver. He’s gonna be the champ.

The comments prompted Gaethje to respond to 'DC' and a heated back-and-forth between the two followed.

Suck it harder @dc_mma

@Justin_Gaethje I can’t fight you, but Islam can my guy. You just go and do what you do next week. You may be safe I’m not sure champ. @Justin_Gaethje

@dc_mma You brought my name up. It wasn’t going to come out of anybody’s mouth.

@Justin_Gaethje I literally asked why he should get title shot over you? Because he has to convince he deserves to jump you. Hell I thought you should have been in the fight with Charles. Have said it publicly. Calm down highlight , you’re my favorite fighter.

This isn't the first time Cormier has been accused of being biased towards his friends and teammates. Alexander Volkanovski's coach Eugene Bareman slammed the fighter-turned-commentator for blatantly favoring Max Holloway at UFC 245.

Justin Gaethje says he 'won't go away quiet' if he wins at UFC 268 and Islam Makhachev receives a title shot

Justin Gaethje will return to the octagon for the first time in 13 months against fellow star 155-pounder Michael Chandler at UFC 268. Gaethje expects to earn a title shot if he beats Chandler. Should he be leapfrogged by Islam Makhachev, Geathje warned:

"If I win Saturday and I don't get a [title] shot, there's no way I can let that happen and go away quiet... [Dan] Hooker, it wasn't even, it was a late replacement fight. It's not like he trained for that fight. He's still hasn't fought a top-caliber fighter in the UFC. That's my mindset."

'The Highlight' added that beating a late replacement in Dan Hooker doesn't warrant a championship opportunity. He then said the fight could have gone another way had Hooker had a full training camp.

Watch Justin Gaethje's full interview with ESPN: