Daniel Cormier once again defends holding towel at weigh-ins

UFC light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier stirred up quite a bit of controversy on Friday at the UFC 210 early weigh-ins prior to his UFC 210 showdown with Anthony Johnson on Saturday evening.

Cormier missed weight on his first attempt, weighing in at 206.2 pounds; 1.2 pounds over the light heavyweight title fight limit of 205 pounds, before then reemerging just over two minutes later and weighing-in at 205 pounds. While Cormier did make weight on the second attempt, he used his hands on the privacy towel to give himself leverage so as to offset his weight and help him in making weight without having to cut the remaining 1.2 pounds. Immediately following the controversial situation, Cormier denied leaning on the towel to help him make weight, maintaining that he was simply attempting to prevent his manhood from being shown.

Now, Cormier has once again defended his actions, insisting once again that he was not using the privacy towel to help him make weight. He spoke to MMAFighting:

“When I got off the scale the first time, I walked away, and they didn’t cover me,” Cormier said. “So obviously, a guy thinks that he’s losing everything that he’s worked for on the scale, and we just walk back off the scale and nobody even worried about protecting me. So I was like, you know what, I’m going to hold the towel a little bit myself to make sure that I’m covered.

“Now, the reality is, I didn’t even realize I was doing that until I saw pictures, honestly. I’ve got to be completely honest with you, I didn’t even realize I was doing that. I was tired. I was very discouraged and upset because of after that had just happened, so I didn’t even realize that I was doing it.”

For his part, former UFC light heavyweight kingpin Jon Jones has referred to the move as the dirtiest thing he’s seen.

on 4/12/2017.