'I Need to See His Face,' Daniel Cormier Baffled by Old Rival's Callout

Daniel Cormier reacts to Derrick Lewis' confusing callout.

Lewis (Jerome Miron-USA TODAY SPORTS) / Cormier (Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC)

Former UFC double-champion Daniel Cormier faced criticism at the UFC Edmonton Media Day on October 30 when Derrick Lewis said he'd like a rematch and insulted his former opponent.

Lewis and Cormier fought before at UFC 230, where Cormier submitted 'The Black Beast' in round two. Everything seemed amicable outside of some friendly banter about Cormier's Popeyes Chicken commercial. This was until October 30, when Lewis branded Cormier a 'scumbag' and a 'piece of s***' without much explanation.

"[I'd probably rematch] DC [Cormier]," Lewis explained. "Because that one's still not sitting right with me... Do people really like DC like that? I told DC in his face, man... that guy's a piece of s***. ... He's a scumbag man. F*** DC. ...DC knows why. "And everyone knows why until he disrespected Popeyes Chicken... But other than that, he's a piece of s***."

Cormier Responds to Lewis

Cormier responded to Lewis' comments in a telephone appearance on The Ariel Helwani Show on October 30.

"I don't know [if Lewis is joking]," Cormier said. "Because I haven't seen him in a while but I was pretty hard on him about retiring, because he had lost a couple of fights and I was kinda telling the truth, and he seemed mad at me... But I'm gonna see him this weekend and I'm gonna ask him like, 'Yo are you mad at me?'"

Helwani prompted Cormier about giving Lewis the opportunity to fight at Madison Square Garden on short notice for the heavyweight belt.

"...He’s making big money now, constantly," Cormier replied. "We put him in an area, and he’s staying there, and I’m happy for him. I don’t know what it is though, I really don’t know what it is. I need to see his face, see if he’s laughing, I need to see if he’s joking, I need to see how he’s looking, and how he looks to see if he’s really mad at me.

"But when I see him this weekend I'll walk right up to him and go, 'Hey what's going on?'"

Lewis fights this weekend at UFC Edmonton, which gives Cormier an opportunity to squash the beef.

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