Dominick Reyes wasn’t pleased with Daniel Cormier’s call of his big UFC 333 win.
“The Dominator” made it two straight wins Saturday in Abu Dhabi, needing less than three minutes to crack Azamat Murzakanov with a head kick and put him down for good with a signature left hand. It was a strong performance for Reyes, who was coming off of a listless split nod over Johnny Walker in April.
It wasn’t all positive vibes afterward, as Reyes later took to Twitter to criticize cageside commentator Daniel Cormier for referring to him as “kid” during the broadcast.
If there was any doubt he was referring to Cormier, the former two-division champion responded to Reyes, sparking a heated exchange.
“Yo Dom, chill,” Cormier wrote. “I don’t call you kid negatively. I’ve only spoke truth to you. When you do amazing shit like you did today, I praise you. If you do something like the last fight with Johnny, I speak the truth about that, too. But these comments seem like you’ve been carrying something with you for a while. You can always talk to me. I’m not very hard to find.”
Reyes then doubled down on being referred to as kid and accused Cormier of being biased in favor of fighters from the North Caucasus region. Cormier is friends and longtime training partners with Khabib Nurmagomedov and Islam Makhachev, both of whom hail from Dagestan, Russia.
“My name is Dominick, not ‘kid,’” Reyes wrote. “Yeah, I heard your commentary tonight on my fight. How about the part where Paul [Felder] called you out for your clear bias? And what did you do? You laughed about it. No, I don’t know where to find you? I’ve literally never seen you anywhere other than around the cage or in the cage post-fight.
“I’m bothered by your lack of research and knowledge whilst commentating. Your ‘expert’ commentary sways the opinions of average fans and that has a profound effect on our lives. Your clear bias towards fighters from the [Caucasus] region is frustrating, especially being an American fighter.”
Cormier continued to try and defuse the situation, with little success.
“You’re tripping, bud, and honestly I’ll just find you for a conversation,” Cormier wrote. “I actually like you. I told your team how amazing you looked tonight this may have been your best performance. But this is insane. Just stop! Seriously.”
“I’m not your buddy, guy,” Reyes replied. “But seriously, I don’t care if you like me, truly. I only care that you have unbiased, well-informed color commentary. I will stop now but not because you asked me to.”
Reyes later tweeted praise for Murzakanov and then issued another statement appearing to put any beef with Cormier behind him.
“Also, I’ve realized we are all out here doing our best,” Reyes wrote. “Commentary team included.”
“Sometimes it doesn’t go our way or how we imagined it would go. But in the end as long as we can say we gave it our best shot there is nothing to be ashamed of. Fighting is f*cked, you people are animals out here. But at the end of the day I wouldn’t change a thing. God bless.”
