Daniel Cormier responds to Derrick Lewis’ explicit rant ahead of UFC Edmonton: ‘Yo, are you mad at me?’

Dan Hiergesell is an expert voice who serves as MMAmania.com's weekend editor, covering mixed martial arts (MMA) for more than 15 years, getting featured on programs such as Countdown to UFC and SiriusXM Fight Club, among others.

Derrick Lewis unexpectedly attacked former UFC champion and current color commentator Daniel Cormier with an explicit rant earlier this week and fight fans didn’t know what to think. Even “DC” seems to be confused by “Black Beast’s” verbal beatdown.

Lewis, who returns to action this weekend at UFC Edmonton against rising heavyweight prospect Jhonata Diniz, is looking to turn a new page in his UFC career. This includes a more professional approach during his post-fight interviews and an overall clean act when it comes to his brand and how he’s viewed by fight fans. “Black Beast” explained these changes earlier this week during UFC Edmonton’s pre-fight media day.

In addition, Lewis absolutely unloaded a rant about Cormier and how the former UFC champion is a “piece of s—t scumbag.” Cormier’s name was brought up during questioning and Lewis simply couldn’t hold his tongue. The reasoning behind the “beef” is truly unknown at this time and Lewis remained vague while explaining it, but it could have something to do with the way “DC” has been calling his fights.

“Probably DC,” said Lewis when asked which loss in his career he’d like to get back. “Because that one still doesn’t sit right with me, man. Do people really like DC like that? C’mon, man. I told DC to his face that he’s a piece of s—t. He’s a piece of s—t scumbag, man. F—k DC.”

Of course, Cormier was going to respond at some point. After all, the two will likely cross paths this weekend as UFC travels back to Canada for UFC Edmonton. Cormier reacted to Lewis’ comments earlier this week and still doesn’t understand exactly what’s going on, but intends to find out over the next few days.

“I haven’t seen him for a while, but I was pretty hard on him about retiring because he had lost a couple of fights and I was kind of telling the truth and he seemed mad at me, but I haven’t seen him,” said Cormier during a recent episode of The Ariel Helwani Show. “I’m going to see him this weekend and I’m going to kind of ask him, ‘Yo, are you mad at me?’”

“It sounds like it may be a little underlying, he might be a little pissed at me because of the way I talked about him,” added Cormier. “I don’t know what fight it was where it he didn’t look great, but then he knocked the last guy out and I was like, ‘I’m glad he’s back.’ So I don’t know. My opinions go with their performances and I think maybe that’s what it is, but in terms of anything else, Derrick and I don’t really have many things that we do together outside of the Popeyes thing and then our fight.

“But we can’t be mad at each other, we already fought. It’s settled.”

LIVE! Stream UFC Edmonton On ESPN+

FLYWEIGHT MANIA! Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) returns to its APEX venue in Las Vegas, Nevada, on Sat., Oct. 19, 2024, with an exciting Middleweight main event between two surging contenders as No. 13-ranked Anthony Hernandez ranked takes on No. 14-seeded Michel Pereira. In addition, exciting Bantamweight standouts Rob Font (No. 10) vs. Kyler Phillips (No. 11) hook ‘em up in UFC Vegas 99’s hard-hitting co-headliner.

Don’t miss a single second of face-punching action!

• STREAM NOW

MMAmania.com will deliver LIVE round-by-round, blow-by-blow coverage of the entire UFC Edmonton fight card RIGHT HERE, starting with the ESPN+ preliminary card matchups which are scheduled to begin at 4 p.m. ET, followed by the remaining main card balance on ESPN+ at 7 p.m. ET.

To check out the latest and greatest UFC Edmonton news and notes be sure to hit up our comprehensive event archive here. For the updated and finalized “Moreno vs. Albazi” fight card and ESPN+ lineup click here.