Cris Cyborg accuses Daniel Cormier of being “paid to shill” for UFC

Bellator featherweight champion Cris Cyborg believes retired two-division UFC champion Daniel Cormier is a “shill” for the Las Vegas-based promotion.

Speaking on a recent episode of ESPN’s DC and Helwani show, Cormier divulged that he was paid a $1M bonus after his 2015 decision loss to Jon Jones. He also revealed that he received a $400,000 bonus after he defeated Anthony “Rumble” Johnson in 2015.

“After I had lost to Jon Jones, Lorenzo Fertitta gave me $1 million,” Cormier, who recently retired from competition, revealed (via MMA Mania). “Him and Dana [White] gave me $1 million. They actually called me and said, ‘We are going to give you $1 million for the job that you’ve done.’

“So when people say, ‘Wow you made $80 to fight Jon Jones and that was a big pay-per-view…’ No, they gave $1 million,” Cormier continued. “I didn’t get PPV (points), I was just a challenger fighting a guy who has defended his belt all those times.

“So when people talk about, ‘You’re a white knight for the UFC’ why wouldn’t I be? They changed my life,” Cormier added.

These comments from Cormier caught the eye of Cyborg, who signed with Bellator after a tense and public dispute with the UFC and its President Dana White.

By her estimation, these post-fight bonuses are evidence that Cormier is “paid to shill” for the UFC.

“When UFC moved UFC 232 from NV to CA on four days notice, they refused to compensate me for paid appearances I could no longer attend in Vegas,” Cyborg wrote in a Tweet to Cormier, which was later deleted. “At UFC 240 they refused to buy my flights to the fights because I did camp in South Africa. I was the PPV co-main event. [Cormier] you’re paid to shill.

“UFC 240, they compensated me 5K to fight in the company uniform,” she wrote in another deleted Tweet, evidently put off by the disparity between what Cormier was paid and her UFC wages.

What do you make of these comments from Daniel Cormier and Cris Cyborg?