Dana White can't understand why fans don't embrace Daniel Cormier
Daniel Cormier may be light heavyweight champion and one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the sport today, but he's never been a true fan favorite during his UFC career.
Cormier is routinely drowned in jeers from crowds when he steps into a press conference or even when he's competing inside the Octagon despite the fact that he's seemingly one of the true poster boys for the UFC.
As a former two-time Olympian with an impeccable record throughout his career, Cormier would appear to be the kind of fighter who fans would be attracted to root for, but that's just never been the case during the majority of his time spent with the promotion.
UFC president Dana White can't pretend to understand why some fighters are more popular than others based solely on intangibles outside of the cage, but it's especially perplexing when examining Cormier.
"It's the weirdest thing ever that he has not been embraced by the fans," White told "The Herd" on Wednesday. "He's a great guy. He's very well spoken and his fights are exciting. Cormier is an exciting fighter. It's a weird thing.
"They like the bad boy, Jon Jones. Last time we had a press conference for those two, they were cheering Jon Jones and booing Cormier. It's fascinating. I don't get it. It is what it is."
Cormier has reacted in the past when fans have started cheering for Jones despite his numerous issues outside of the Octagon, but now it appears he's just accepted his role in the sport.
Of course, Cormier would prefer to be loved rather than hated, but he's not losing any sleep over the crowd cheering for him or booing him because the results in his fights are still going to be the same no matter what.
"If people are going to boo they’re going to boo. It doesn’t really matter to me. I know who I am, my friends know who I am and the people that matter know who I am. So if people boo me, they boo me," Cormier said ahead of UFC 210 in Buffalo "I don’t know why they do it but they made decisions as to who they want to back and everybody is entitled to their own opinion and their right to cheer and root for whoever they want to root for.
"At the end of the day, when I win my fights and I keep the belt, I bring the belt home to the people that matter. The fans that support me, they share in those moments with me. The ones that don’t they boo me in the moment and then they go about their business and they can boo me next time they see me or they can mess around on my social media but that stuff doesn’t matter. The people that matter are the ones that support me and the people that are closest to me."
