Photo by Mike Roach/Zuffa LLC/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images
Watch Dana White console Daniel Cormier backstage at UFC 241.
UFC 241 was a tough pill to swallow for Daniel Cormier.
After originally KO’ing Stipe Miocic to win the heavyweight title at UFC 226, ‘DC’ lost the belt in the championship rematch at Anaheim’s Honda Center, succumbing to a barrage of ground-and-pound in the fourth round of the UFC 241 main event.
Cormier was devastated by the loss, and recent video footage shows UFC president Dana White trying to console the former light heavyweight and heavyweight champ backstage.
Check it out below, courtesy of Reddit user u/metanoia09.
“It was an incredible fight, an incredible fight, incredible,” White said to a deflated Cormier (h/t BJPenn.com).
“I was winning the fight on all the cards, too. On every card I was winning. I was winning all three rounds on two of them,” Cormier replies. “I’m a f*cking idiot,” Cormier replied.
White then interjected: “Why are you an idiot? Listen man, Stipe came to f*cking win. That dude was in great shape, he kept coming forward, you kept coming forward. You don’t see heavyweight fights like that where two fucking monsters just keep coming forward and f*cking blasting each other the way that you were. It was an incredible fight. I know how you are and how competitive you are. You’re the f*cking man, dude.”
White then leaves the locker room, and Cormier can be seen crying while being consoled by his wife and children.
“I’m a competitive guy. It’s my gift and my curse,” Cormier continued. “You know like, by not accepting loss it makes you ensure you won’t do it very often. I think that’s what makes me so good at stuff, but also what makes the emotion run so freely whenever it doesn’t go the right way.”
Despite the loss, Cormier is still considered one of the greatest p4p fighters in the sport and currently ranked #7 in the UFC’s official pound-for-pound rankings. As of now, the 40-year-old is non-committal over a trilogy bout with Miocic and was originally planning to retire on his 40th birthday.