LAS VEGAS – Sam Hughes had a bone to pick with Daniel Cormier, and she let the former UFC two-division champion know about it.
Hughes, who entered UFC Fight Night 206 as an underdog against Elise Reed, was dominant for the majority of almost 15 minutes en route to a TKO win with ground-and-pound at the 3:52 mark of the third round to open the prelims at the UFC Apex.
In the moment, Hughes (7-4 MMA, 2-3 UFC) looked at Cormier and yelled his way, asking if he still thinks she’s a quitter, which Hughes remembers DC saying after her she loss by doctor-stoppage TKO to Tecia Torres in December 2020 at UFC 256.
Cormier addressed it head on when it came time to interview Hughes in the octagon after her victory.
“You just asked me if I thought you were quitter,” Cormier told her.
Hughes replied with a smile, “I remember the Tecia fight, been wanting to talk to you about this for a long time. You called me a quitter, and I’m not a quitter. I’ve had a chip on my shoulder for a few years now. I respect the hell out of you, but that hurt when you called me a quitter. I was like, I’m not no quitter.”
Following that loss to Torres, Hughes dropped two more unanimous decisions before snapping her three-fight skid with a majority decision win over Istela Nunes last month at UFC on ESPN 34.
Hughes, now the winner of two straight, explained more about why she needed to put Cormier on the spot once she got the victory Saturday.
“I kind of had a couple dreams about that over the past couple years,” Hughes said. “Man, that really hurt whenever I had that fight with Tecia. I remember re-watching that fight a few times, and DC said I quit – I was a quitter. Man, I carried that with me for a few years now, and I’m just like, ‘I’m not a quitter.’ If anything, I’ve never quit at anything in my whole life. So I’ve just kind of carried that chip on my shoulder. And I was like, ‘Eventually I’m gonna bring that up and talk to him about it.’ But I didn’t want it to come across like me being a jerk or anything like that. But I knew I need to address this and just squash it and move on. I respect the hell out of DC. DC is in the Hall of Fame for a reason. He’s a great person. Yeah, I just wanted to squash that.”
Consider it squashed.