UFC middleweight Phil Hawes had to be separated from UFC legend Daniel Cormier as the pair were involved in a heated altercation.
Hawes recorded a sensational second round stoppage at UFC Austin against Cormier's long term mentee Deron Winn, after a series of damaging elbows. UFC legend Cormier then stepped in the octagon to conduct the post-fight interview after calling the fight from cageside.
He was quickly met with hostility from Hawes who was fired up after victory, shouting: “You picked the wrong pony! Yeah, you dog. You know what I’m talking about. I’ll cool off and then next week you can fight me.” Cormier quickly fired back: “I don’t pick fights. Be respectful. You didn’t beat me. I don’t pick fights. Look at what happened. Why would I want this fight? You can do it better than that, don’t do that.”
The pair saw referee Herb Dean step between them as tensions flared inside the octagon after the conclusion of the bout. Hawes later turned to apologise to Cormier who muttered back: "You can do better than that".
Anger subsided from the pair with cooler heads eventually prevailing so Cormier was able to conduct the post-fight assessment of his victory. Hawes has since issued a full apology to Cormier claiming that the legendary heavyweight was his role model when making his rise in the UFC. “Yeah, it was just a misunderstanding on my behalf,” Hawes said during the post-fight press conference.
“Daniel Cormier is such a role model to me, [he’s] a two-weight world champion, just a stellar dude. So it was just a miscommunication. Wrong place, wrong time. I apologise, ‘DC.’ Don’t beat me up.” The fight saw Hawes attempting to rebound from his first defeat under the UFC banner against Chris Curtis last November at UFC 268.
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He had already picked up victories over Nassourdine Imavov and Jacob Malkoun during his tenure with the promotion and was looking to continue his rise. Hawes took the fight to his rival in a striking battle, with either fighter reluctant to make the contest a ground war.
In the second round Hawes found his opening and was able to finally dismantle Cormier's protege, using a series of elbows to record a career-best victory. The 33-year-old now improves to a record of 4-1 in his time with the promotion and will be looking for bigger and better opportunities at middleweight.
Despite the heated words following the final bell, Hawes saluted the durability of his opponent and believes that this stern test will help him improve in his following outings. "He was extremely tough," Hawes continued during the post-fight press conference. "I knew he was durable but I didn't know he was that durable. And I think my last contest got me ready for that I am used to hitting people and boom they fall. They usually show and I can get them out of there and he didn't want to leave."
