Phil Hawes appears to regret how he handled things with Daniel Cormier after finishing the soon-to-be UFC Hall of Famer’s longtime teammate, Deron Winn.
Hawes brutalized Winn over the course of the fight, wobbling his opponent multiple times in the first round before Herb Dean mercifully stopped it late in the second. Following the victory, Hawes and Cormier had words, with Hawes claiming Cormier for allegedly “picking the wrong guy.”
Cormier explained to Hawes that he doesn’t pick fights, and cooler heads eventually prevailed. During his post-fight media scrum, Hawes apologized to Cormier.
“Yeah, it was just a misunderstanding on my behalf,” Hawes said. “‘DC’ 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 apologize, ‘DC.’ Don’t beat me up.”
With the victory, Hawes improved to 4-1 inside the octagon and bounced back from a first-round KO loss to Chris Curtis at UFC 268 this past November.
Check out Hawes full post-fight interview above, courtesy of MMAWeekly.com.