Former UFC light heavyweight and heavyweight champion, Daniel Cormier received some notable flak over the weekend — after he misidentified ‘Eternals’ star, Kumail Nanjiani for the actor-turned-politician, Kalpen Suresh Penn.
Following his tweet in which he misidentified Nanjiani, Cormier received criticism from Kashif Shaikh who urged him to delete his unfactual tweet, where he misidentified Nanjiani for Kalpen Suresh Modi, who played the role of Kumar Patel in the trilogy movie series, Harold & Kumar alongside John Cho who played the role of, Harold Lee.
Daniel Cormier mistakes Kumail Nanjiani for Harold & Kumar star Kalpen Suresh Modi
“Finally watching the Eternals and what happened to Harold and Kumar?‘ Cormier tweeted. “Dude is all ripped and sh*t now.“
Responding to Cormier, the aforenoted, Shaikh urged the former two-weight champion and UFC color commentator to delete his tweet.
“@dc_mma DC [Daniel Cormier],” Shaikh tweeted. “Dude, you’re better than this. Delete this and there’s still time to pretend it didn’t happen.“
Cormier owned his mistake and apologized for misidentifying Nanjiani, or “the guy from Silicon Valley“.
“Made mistake man,” Cormier tweeted in response to Shaikh. “It’s normal brother I thought it was that guy from Silicon Valley. My apologies.“
Shaikh once again responded to Cormier and claimed he was appreciative that the latter addressed the issue, and called him a “good dude” for doing so.
“@dc_mma you’re a good dude DC. I’m sure it wasn’t intentional,” Shaikh tweeted. “Appreciate you owning it.“
“I made a mistake brother and if I upset someone I apologize,” Cormier tweeted. “It was literally a mistake.“
ONE Championship heavyweight kingpin, Indian-Canadian-born Arjan Singh Bhullar — a teammate of Cormier at American Kickboxing Academy in San Jose, California — maintained that Cormier was definitely not racist and has respect and love for their culture and people.
“@VoidTV4 @kmshaikh @dc_mma He’s def (definitely) no racist and got love for our culture and ppl (people) (100 emoji),” Bhullar tweeted.
Cormier thanked Bhullar for his backing regarding the issue — once again reiterating that he had mistakenly misidentified Nanjiani.
“Thank you, brother Arjan, I legit made a mistake,” Cormier tweeted. “Much love my brother.”