Cormier insists hacked account posted Eric Trump fixed-fight screenshots without his knowledge

Daniel Cormier says he had no knowledge of a tweet posted from his account during the UFC White House event that appeared to show screenshots of a conversation with Eric Trump discussing the possibility of fixed fights — and insists his account was hacked.

The tweet, which was deleted shortly after it appeared on Sunday, sparked immediate controversy in the MMA world. Both Cormier and Trump denied that any such exchange had taken place, but the story continued to circulate for days.

Speaking on his YouTube channel on Wednesday, Cormier described the moment he first learned about the post. “I get to the UFC on Sunday,” he said. “Two of the UFC social media people are telling me, ‘We were just talking about you.’ I said, ‘About what?’ They said, ‘You and Eric Trump.’ I said, ‘What about me and Eric Trump?’ Guys, this is at 6:30 p.m. on Sunday night. I go to the event, and they’re telling me, talking to me about something that I have no idea that is going on.”

Cormier said he had no idea how long the tweet had been live or how long it had already been taken down by the time he was informed. He was emphatic that he would never have posted anything of the kind himself.

“Whoever did this, whoever hacked my Twitter, they posted and took it down, because they think that people are going to believe stuff like that,” he said. “At the end of the day, I would never do anything like that. I would never engage in those conversations. I would never go to Twitter and post that after engaging in those conversations. I just wouldn’t do that.”

He added that the situation was made worse by the timing, with the hack occurring as he was in the middle of broadcasting what he described as one of the most significant events of his career. “In the middle of it all, I’m trying to change the password to my Twitter account, to try and make sure people are doing and posting crazy things from the account, as I’m trying to broadcast one of the biggest broadcasting moments of my entire career.”

Cormier also argued that the premise of the alleged screenshots should have been enough to raise immediate doubts. “I don’t think he’s stupid enough to do that,” he said of Eric Trump. “I don’t think anybody would be dumb enough to do that to somebody they just don’t know. He doesn’t know me. And, logic — Twitter, for as long as Twitter has been around, in order to have conversations with someone, you and that person have to follow each other to direct message. We don’t follow each other.”

As of Wednesday, Cormier said he had spent two and a half days working with Twitter to regain full access to his account.