After Khabib Nurmagomedov went nuts and leaped the Octagon to get at Dillon Danis shortly after submitting Conor McGregor at UFC 229, Daniel Cormier jumped into the cage to try and diffuse the situation.
With Khabib looking up to “DC” as the American Kickboxing Academy (AKA) captain, training partner and friend, “The Eagle” took Cormier’s advice and eventually got his emotions in check.
“I was trying to go up to talk to him and they kept pushing me. But, he kept telling them, ‘This is my captain, let him through.’ So when I finally got close enough to him I told him, ‘Hey, what in the world is going on? What are you doing? You have got to calm down,” Cormier said during a recent interview on The Ariel Helwani MMA Show.
“And he said, ‘Okay captain, give me my belt.’ The dude was worked up. I have honestly never seen him act like that.”
To hear “DC” tell the tale, his son also jumped over the cage to help his dad, but was ultimately restrained by UFC security. Seriously.
For his efforts in calming down the melee, Cormier says the promotion refunded him the money he spent on front row tickets he purchased for his entire family to attend the event.
“I buy tickets. I buy tickets for my kids to go to the fights. We were given tickets and I buy tickets and then the whole fight happens,” Cormier explained. “Then Dana calls me back and says, ‘We are giving you your money back because you helped us calm everybody down. We can’t charge you for tickets.’”
It’s a good thing, too, because Octagon-side seats weren’t cheap.
UFC also paid Cormier a hefty sum -- according to the man himself — to defend his Heavyweight title against Derrick Lewis at the upcoming UFC 230 pay-per-view (PPV) event inside Madison Square Garden in New York, New York.
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