"I am not trying to discredit him" - Daniel Cormier gives lengthy explanation after take on Alex Pereira at heavyweight fails to sit well with fans

Daniel Cormier came up with a justification after a sizeable chunk of the MMA community refuted his take on Alex Pereira's move to heavyweight. Cormier counted Pereira as incapable of competing against heavyweights after his loss against Magomed Ankalaev at UFC 313.

Pereira failed to unleash his devastating striking against Ankalev in his UFC 313 encounter. He found some success with his leg kicks in the initial round of the encounter. However, Ankalaev countered them effectively with his short and fast strikes.

Pereira's rival also managed the intermediate distance a lot better, providing himself opportunities to land shots that he made the most of. 'Poatan's' unanimous decision defeat also took away his UFC light heavyweight gold after three title defenses.

There was a massive roar in the community about Pereira's move to heavyweight before he lost his championship to Ankalaev. However, the Brazilian's antics during his UFC 313 encounter had Cormier opining that heavyweights would "walk right through" Pereira.

An Instagram post from @espnmma highlighting Cormier's words earned a plethora of negative reactions from fans. Most of them dissed 'DC' for changing his take after witnessing Pereira endure just one loss.

Check out Daniel Cormier's comments below (via ESPN MMA):

Bothered by the amount of negativity, Cormier also took to the comments section of the post to provide a justification for his comments. He penned:

"I am not trying to discredit him. If you hear what I said I said that I believe he’s maxed out weight up. I love Alex and that won’t ever change and whatever he decides to do I’m here to support him. It isn’t a change up. It’s my opinion because last opponent was able to march forward."

Daniel Cormier's comment on @espnmma's Instagram post. [Image courtesy: @espnmma on Instagram]

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Alex Pereira predicts the rematch against Magomed Ankalaev isn't too far away

Alex Pereira expressed his thoughts about his UFC 313 fight against Magomed Ankalaev shortly after returning to his place. He posted a video to his social media accounts, thanking his fans and his team for supporting him.

However, a recent X update from @ChampRDS relayed another video from Pereira where he talked about his performance against Ankalaev. The dethroned light heavyweight champ also implied that their rematch may happen soon. He said:

"Going back home, I think we did an excellent job. Not just this fight, we've been evolving a lot. In the team, one learning from the other. Everyone is happy. Of course, it's not a result I was expecting. I was very confident for this fight. I was good for the fight, trained a lot. I don't want to give excuses. I know there will be the rematch, they're talking about it already."