Daniel Cormier is fully on board with the rising tension between Justin Gaethje and Ilia Topuria ahead of their lightweight title-unification bout at UFC Freedom 250.
Gaethje and Topuria are set to clash for lightweight gold on June 14, when the UFC stages Freedom 250 at the White House in Washington D.C. In the buildup, Gaethje has taken aim at Topuria’s personal life, using the champion’s divorce as fuel for his trash talk. Topuria enters the fight as a heavy favorite with a 17-0 MMA, 9-0 UFC record, while Gaethje brings a 27-5 MMA, 10-5 UFC resume into the matchup.
Cormier praised the heated buildup on his YouTube channel, saying, "I always like when there is trash talk accompanying a fight– especially a championship fight and especially a fight of that magnitude where you have the greatest backdrop for any fight in the history of the sport, the White House – where you have two championship fights in front of what will be the biggest fan audience that we have ever seen in mixed martial arts."
He added that the surrounding drama only boosts intrigue for UFC Freedom 250. "You need to have those things that surround the fight that make the general fan go, 'I've got to see this.' I get it: The White House is going to draw a lot of people in that might not have been before. But to see now that the pleasantries aren't as evident as they might have been before, I like it. I like the storylines. I liked when I saw Ilia Topuria get mad because Josh Hokit was going crazy onAlex Pereira. I liked that press conference because I am a fan of this thing."
