Cormier has gone from the bad guy to the good guy, but he doesn’t really care either way.
Once upon a time there was a fighter named Daniel Cormier, and despite his impressive accomplishments as an undersized fighter at heavyweight, people just didn’t like him very much. He won and he won and he won but still people booed him. He lost to Jon Jones in their first fight and people cheered. Jones ended up getting stripped and Cormier quickly claimed the 205 pound belt … leading some to call him a paper champ.
But something funny happened in the aftermath of his second more brutal mauling at the hands of Jon Jones two years after he took the belt: people started to like him. Jones failed another drug test, returning the belt to Cormier’s possession, but the razzing he received afterwards was far less than when he beat Anthony Johnson for the vacant belt. Instead, Cormier started getting the cheers we think he deserved all along.
So what changed? We don’t know, and neither does Daniel.
“I don’t know what I did,” Cormier admitted during a media talk for The Ultimate Fighter 27 (via MMA Fighting). “I didn’t really do anything. I did the exact same thing. They decide when they like you and when they don’t … Going into the Jones fight, it was all boos. And then going into Boston, it was all cheers. Then when I went to that press conference in Brooklyn, cheers.”
”They put me on the camera and for the first time, people yelled positive stuff. Usually they just boo me. I didn’t care. I just get used to it.”
As far as Cormier is concerned, the reason behind the switch is a mystery. And rather than torture himself trying to keep fan reactions positive, he’s just happy you feel strongly one way or another.
“I’d kind of feel out what people liked and didn’t like,” he admitted. “And the things I got the most hate, on Twitter, I would start to say it in public. If you want me to be your bad guy, I’ll be your bad guy. I just kind of gauge it … I want a reaction. Whether it is positive or negative, I just want you to not be indifferent. As long as you care, that’s good.”
People will be in good position to be on one side or the other when Cormier faces off against heavyweight champ Stipe Miocic at UFC 226 on July 7th in Las Vegas.