Daniel Cormier deems Alexander Gustafsson a wee bit entitled for his liking.
The reigning UFC light heavyweight champ - who defended the crown against Gustafsson by split decision at UFC 192 - is scheduled to make a bid for Stipe Miocic's heavyweight title this summer, which recently prompted the Swede to call for an interim title shot to make sure he gets next crack at Cormier's strap. Gustafsson's words reached Cormier's ears, and the 39-year-old took umbrage to his former foe's gall during Wednesday's edition of "UFC Tonight."
"Alexander Gustafsson, I keep bringing him up 'cause I used to like him, I can't stand this dude now," Cormier said, per MMANytt's Damon Martin. "This dude is out of control. He keeps talking. He keeps talking as if he deserves something. This dude is 3-3 (in his last six fights). He says since I'm going up, he should fight for an interim title.
"Why? I just defended the belt in January."
Recent history notwithstanding, interim champions are traditionally crowned when the reigning titleholder has been sidelined for at least a year, but as Cormier pointedly reminded Gustafsson on Wednesday, he just defended his belt with a second-round TKO of Volkan Oezdemir at UFC 220 two months ago. Oezdemir and Gustafsson were on the short list to challenge Cormier before the former got the nod, but the latter didn't call his shot until after the fact - the champ alleged.
"So I feel at this point we've kind of earned the right to say if a fight at heavyweight is what's most important to me, that's what I'm going to do. I've got a guy like Alexander Gustafsson, who had his mouth shut the whole time, then when I fought Volkan (Oezdemir), he had something to say.
"Now that I'm going up at heavyweight, all of a sudden he's got a ton to say. But these guys don't talk until you're scheduled to do something."
Cormier challenges Miocic at UFC 226 on July 7 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
