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Former UFC champion Daniel Cormier told Fox News Digital that he did not post viral screenshots alleging an exchange with Eric Trump in which the president’s son asked for inside intel about fighter injuries and whether any fights were “rigged” ahead of UFC Freedom 250 at the White House.
The now-deleted post from Cormier showed screenshots of what appeared to be direct messages between himself and Eric Trump, with Trump reaching out to Cormier ahead of Sunday’s spectacle asking who he had winning, if any fighters were injured and “cutting to the chase” if any of the fights are rigged.
“They’re not real,” Cormier told Fox News Digital when asked what happened with the posts showing the alleged messages with Trump.
“I can’t believe you guys believed that. Like, who believes that?” he said.
Daniel Cormier and Joe Rogan announce the fights during the UFC Freedom 250 event on the South Lawn at the White House in Washington, D.C., on June 14, 2026. (Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC)
The conversation caught national attention as a potential cheating scandal as it appears to show Trump trying to leverage inside information that could be used toward advancing his own bets.
The account that is labeled as Trump in the screenshots shows a message saying, “I’ll just cut to the chase…are any of the fights tomorrow rigged? I’ve been eyeing the Lopes fight and I think an upset wouldn’t be too unrealistic. $$.”
The exchange ends with an alleged reply from Cormier to Trump saying, “No none of our fights rigged and honestly I am appalled you would even ask me something like that.”
UFC legend Daniel Cormier denied posting viral screenshots purporting to show direct messages with Eric Trump, telling Fox News Digital the posts were “not real” and that he was hacked. (Jonathan Bachman/Zuffa LLC; Kena Betancur/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Both Cormier and Trump posted on X Sunday evening, leading up to the main event of the night, claiming the post was fake. Cormier asked if “people were really that dumb,” while Trump posted that the whole thing was “completely fake.”
In another post, Trump referred to the screenshots as “fake, AI-generated screenshots” and said he has never even spoken to Cormier.
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Lara Trump, Carolina Trump, Eric Trump, Arabella Rose Kushner, Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner, Tiffany Trump, Barron Trump and Michael Boulos walked back to the White House after the UFC Freedom 250 mixed martial arts event. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images)
Cormier told Fox News Digital that he was hacked and he was not the one to post the alleged interaction to social media.
“I got hacked or something,” he said when asked if he was denying posting it to his social media.
He continued, “Who believes stuff like that? That’s crazy.”
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Cormier also told Fox News Digital that the reporting that he posted this is wrong.
“Yeah, absolutely,” he said when asked if the journalists claiming he posted it to social media are wrong.
