Daniel Cormier maintains that his Twitter account was hacked.
On Sunday, Cormier became the center of controversy in the MMA world after a Tweet sent from his account posted alleged screenshots of an interaction with Eric Trump, where the President’s son appeared to ask Cormier about the possibility of fixed fights at the UFC White House event. The tweet in question was deleted, with both Cormier and Trump denying that anything of the sort had actually taken place.
On Wednesday, Cormier addressed the situation, explaining where he was when he found out and what was going on from his side of things.
“I get to the UFC on Sunday,” Cormier said on his YouTube channel. “Two of the UFC social media people are telling me, ‘We were just talking about you.’ I said, ‘About what?’ They said, ‘You and Eric Trump.’ I said, ‘What about me and Eric Trump?’ Guys, this is at 6:30 p.m. on Sunday night. I go to the event, and they’re telling me, talking to me about something that I have no idea that is going on. I have no idea how long it was up. I had no idea how long it had been taken down.
“Now, whoever did this, whoever hacked my Twitter, they posted and took it down, because they think that people are going to believe stuff like that. At the end of the day, I would never do anything like that. I would never engage in those conversations. I would never go to Twitter and post that after engaging in those conversations. I just wouldn’t do that. That’s not what I do.
“So, then I go and look at my Twitter account, and I see all these comments on the next thing that I ended up posting about it. Or on my Instagram channel, people are asking me why I deleted a Tweet. I had no idea what was going on. …
“I’m still just barely getting into my Twitter account this morning,” Cormier continued. “For the last two and a half days, I have been trying to work with Twitter to get me back into my account, because during the show, they told me to change the account. I’m trying to broadcast this historic event, and in the middle of it all, I’m trying to change the password to my Twitter account, to try and make sure people are doing and posting crazy things from the account, as I’m trying to broadcast one of the biggest broadcasting moments of my entire career.”
Cormier went on to argue that the entire situation was so patently absurd on its face that nobody should have believed it in the first place.
“I don’t think he’s stupid enough to do that,” Cormier said of Eric Trump. “I don’t think anybody would be dumb enough to do that to somebody they just don’t know. He doesn’t know me! And, logic! Twitter, for as long as Twitter has been around, in order to have conversations with someone, you and that person have to follow each other to direct message. We don’t follow each other on any social channels. … If I’m being completely honest, I met Donald Trump Jr. on Saturday, and I mistook him for Eric Trump. I don’t follow politics that closely. I just don’t. …
“With me, it’s all logical,” Cormier continued. “I would never do something like that, first off, because I just wouldn’t do it. It doesn’t make sense. And secondly, not as you get ready to go and try to broadcast the biggest night of your entire career. Because had I done that, and I’m getting ready to go to the octagon, all of a sudden, I’m around all the people that I’m trying to expose. Doesn’t make sense. It really does not make sense.
“Not only that, but I have a family. In any situation, you start attacking any type of situation like that, where we’re guests on the White House lawn, and you attack the family that’s in the White House right now, you run the risk of losing your job. What about my children? What about my family? And I doubt that would happen, but it just doesn’t make sense.”
Unfortunately, that hasn’t stopped the internet from running with the story. Even on Cormier’s response video, there are numerous comments suggesting he’s not telling the truth, and the salaciousness of the original Tweet is resulting in Cormier having to deal with a lot of backlash, regardless of him not sending it.
“It’s become an issue for me,” Cormier said. “Not with the UFC, but with sponsors. I’ve had more conversations with sponsors than I’ve had in years, because every company that’s come into contact with me, they generally are happy with the way that the relationship goes. So there’s no need to contact me unless I’m working. But now I’m getting contact from sponsors about this thing. And it’s just not true. So I get annoyed, and I get frustrated, because I don’t understand how it’s not true, and I’m telling you it’s not true, and people just don’t seem to want to believe it.”
But whether or not people will believe him, Cormier is unequivocal in stating that all of this is the result of someone hacking his account.
“There was nothing to it,” Cormier said. “My Twitter got hacked. Someone got into my shit and started posting stuff. … Anybody that knows me knows I don’t speak like that.”
