Daniel Cormier reveals origin of heated octagon exchange with Phil Hawes last UFC Fight Night

Daniel Cormier has revealed the likely reason for his heated verbal altercation with UFC middleweight Phil Hawes at the recently concluded UFC on ESPN 37 event. Hawes picked up a dominant second-round TKO victory on the night against Deron Winn, who happens to be Cormier's teammate at the American Kickboxing Academy.

Following the fight, as 'DC' walked inside the octagon to conduct the customary post-fight interview, some words were exchanged between him and Hawes. The former UFC two-division champion believes that Hawes was initially hostile to him because he perhaps thought Cormier felt he was an easy opponent for Winn.

Cormier revealed that Hawes previously wanted to work with him at the AKA gym in San Jose, California. Soon after, however, UFC matchmakers apparently set up a fight between Hawes and Winn. Cormier believes that Hawes was miffed because he felt 'DC' handpicked him as Winn's opponent, thinking it would be an easy fight for his teammate.

In a video shared on his YouTube channel, Cormier explained what caused the misunderstanding between him and Hawes:

"Phil and I sat with his advisor, a guy that he's very close to and we talked and we spoke and then we talked about Phil coming out to AKA to train with me... Phil knocked out Jacob Malkoun on that weekend, looked tremendous. What happened next, though, was the UFC called and asked for Deron Winn to fight Phil Hawes.

That's where the the problem is, because Phil thought that he asked me to train and I viewed him as a weak opponent so then I took him as Deron's opponent but that's not the truth. We didn't want [Winn] to fight Phil..."

Watch the video below:

---

Daniel Cormier admits he may have hit Phil Hawes if the incident occurred during his fighting days

Daniel Cormier still has a fighter's instincts, but he's learned to keep his anger in check over the years. Throughout the altercation with Hawes, the Louisianan seemed calm, respectful, and professional. He even went on to conduct the post-fight interview smoothly.

Cormier revealed that he got angry at Hawes at one point during the altercation and would have certainly reacted aggressively if this had happened some years earlier when he was still fighting. However, he managed to keep a cool head this time around.

He also praised Hawes for behaving professionally and apologizing immediately after realizing there was no reason for him to be mad at Daniel Cormier. The former Olympian said:

"There was a time in my life that I could not have done that. I would have left or I might have actually hit Phil Hawes because I was childish, I was immature. Jimbo Fisher told me once that "children do what they want men do what they're supposed to," and in that moment as a man I was there to interview Phil Hawes and Phil Hawes was there to be interviewed and we did exactly that."