Dana White says the UFC does not tell Daniel Cormier what to say.
Alex Pereira accused Cormier of being told by the UFC to push Ciryl Gane vs. Josh Hokit over a Gane rematch with Pereira. Cormier denied it and said an immediate rematch would be a hard sell after Gane finished Pereira at UFC Freedom 250.
White backed Cormier after Tuesday’s Dana White’s Contender Series, speaking to reporters including MMA Junkie.
Of course that’s not true. These guys are the most paranoid people on the planet. I’ve never told DC (Cormier) to do anything, ever. It doesn’t work like that. We don’t operate like that.
We’ve got over 700 guys under contract. We talk about two of them being sideways right now. This is normal when you’re in this business.
White said the same goes for Joe Rogan and the rest of the broadcast team.
I’ve never told Rogan or DC or any of these guys to say anything about anybody. As a longtime fan of the fight business, I actually can’t stand the commentators saying negative things about fighters or anything like that, but I don’t tell anybody what to say.
We don’t police any of that stuff. If we did, Sean Strickland would have been gone three f—- years ago, and we wouldn’t even be having this conversation.
Gane defends the heavyweight title against the unbeaten Hokit in the UFC 334 main event on Nov. 14 at Madison Square Garden. Pereira faces Sergei Pavlovich in the UFC 335 co-main event on Dec. 12 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
