Daniel Cormier clashes with Jake Paul during UFC 261 broadcast

"You put my name in your mouth first!"

Following his KO win over former UFC star Ben Askren, last weekend, Jake Paul was cock-of-the-hoop in Jacksonville, Florida. The YouTube star, who is now making a pretty penny in celebrity boxing match-ups, was at the VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena, on Saturday, for UFC 261. Paul had some cosy seats close to The Octagon and showed up a couple of times during the celebrity-spotting camera sweeps during the live broadcast. Daniel Cormier was providing commentary for the event, beside The Octagon, when his attention was raised to Paul being in the building. Cormier and Paul had clashed in social media, over the past week, with the former UFC light heavyweight and heavyweight champion instigating the beef. Following Paul's win over Askren, Cormier posted a video in which he proclaimed:

"Come on Ben! You let the boy do you like that?! Somebody's got to do something about this Jake Paul, man! "Well, guess he's gonna get to pretend to be a fighter a little while longer now. They gonna have to give him somebody real now."

After conceding that 'the dude can box', Cormier called on more renowned UFC strikers like Leon Edwards and Tyron Woodley to step in the ring with Paul. Paul called out Cormier, then, but the former Olympic wrestler and UFC star insisted he was a past tense fighter, and that there were plenty of UFC stars on the current roster than would gladly step up. During the UFC 261 live broadcast, there were words exchanged between Cormier and the Paul entourage. That led to Cormier storming over during a break to confront the social media star.

"You put my name in your mouth first!" Paul insisted, as he removed his glasses. "I'm not playing. I'm not playing!" Cormier shouted as security intervened.

Sure enough, a video of the altercation soon appeared online: https://twitter.com/jakepaul/status/1386176614371844096 That was not the end of the matter as verbal jabs continued during the broadcast, with Cormier doing his best to stay focused as he called the main event fights. https://twitter.com/MMAjunkie/status/1386149075603451904 As for the event itself, Kamaru Usman defended his 170lbs belt by knocking out Jorge Masvidal and Valentina Shevchenko also defended her flyweight strap with a comprehensive victory over Jessica Andrade. One title did change hands, however, as Rose Namajunas defeated straw-weight champion Zhang Weili with a first round stoppage.

---