Ed Mulholland/Zuffa LLC
While speaking to fans after the UFC Freedom 250 event, former MMA fighter Daniel Cormier claimed that his tweet about Eric Trump asking him for inside info about the fights was a result of him being “hacked.” UFC fans largely aren’t buying it, though.
Just about an hour before the UFC Freedom 250 event began, Daniel Cormier’s X/Twitter account shared screenshots of alleged DMs from Eric Trump, the second son of Donald Trump, asking if any of the fights were “rigged.”
“Anything that you can tell me about the fighters tomorrow? Who you got winning? You placing any bets? Are any of the fighters injured that you know of?” Trump asked in the alleged messages.
“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 $$,” he said after multiple deflections from Cormier’s account.
While the tweet was quickly deleted, both MMA journalists and fans saw it with their own eyes, thus killing the narrative that the screenshots of the exchange were created by AI.
Shortly thereafter, Eric Trump took to social media to deny ever speaking to Cormier and claimed the screenshots were “AI generated.” He also noted that Cormier deleted the post — which only complicated his own argument, since deleting a post confirms it existed, and a person cannot “fall for” AI fakes of their own direct messages.
UFC fans are suspicious of Daniel Cormier’s claim that his tweets about Eric Trump were a result of his account being hacked
After the initial Trump tweet and Cormier’s follow-up — DC tweeted “Are people really this dumb?”, a tweet that remains up and thus is being portrayed as being from the ‘real’ Cormier — his account posted and deleted a second bizarre message.
🚨 DANIEL CORMIER TRIED TO ACT LIKE HE GOT HACKED AND THEN DELTED IT INSTANTLY
I took this screenshot myself. This is real. He posted this and then immediately deleted it.
This is a hilarious screw up. Eric Trump likely owns him right now. pic.twitter.com/PhYkjKhasx
— ADAM (@adamemedia1) June 15, 2026
Asked about the situation on Sunday night, Cormier asserted that he was “hacked or something” — which is an entirely different narrative than the AI one that Trump put forth.
“Not real, I can’t believe you guys believed that. Like who believes something like that?” Cormier said. “I got hacked or something. Who believes stuff like that? That’s crazy.”
🤔DC is asked about the Eric Trump tweet and completely denies it
“Not real, can’t believe you guys believed that, I got hacked or something”
via @NicholasBallasy pic.twitter.com/1USqyJWvK8
— Dovy🔌 (@DovySimuMMA) June 15, 2026
“So DC wants us to believe he got hacked, but recovered his account within 2 minutes of the post being up? Okay man, lmfao,” one viral response read.
“You’ve received a phone call from Dana haven’t you? I understand, gotta protect your bag. So yeah, we believe you, Eric Trump never asked for insider info, in fact your account was hacked and you only just recovered it. In fact, you don’t even have a Twitter account,” a second sarcastically responded.
“MMA fans aren’t believing that excuse, however, considering how quickly Cormier was able to recover his account and begin posting again. So hard to watch this. Cormier clearly tried to do the right thing and they quickly got to him. DC is incredibly uncomfortable here and there’s no doubt the Trump family intimidated him,” a third added.
“’I got hacked or something’ so your telling me that you don’t even know what happened with your own account cmon DC this ain’t a good look,” a fourth stated.
Are you this dumb? It was deleted within two minutes. That’s awfully quick to get your account back if you were “hacked”. Also, it’s literally still on my timeline. pic.twitter.com/HR5Y7WG376
— Ryan Frederick (@ryanjfrederick) June 15, 2026
You tweeted it. If you’re tweeting out fake messages, then that’s on you as well. https://t.co/2rC46NtYO9 pic.twitter.com/MDXL1cTXJI
— Ryan Frederick (@ryanjfrederick) June 14, 2026
To summarize: Cormier’s account posted screenshots of an alleged DM exchange with Eric Trump, then deleted them within two minutes. Cormier followed up with “Are people really this dumb?” — a tweet that remains up — before the account posted and deleted a second suspicious message. Trump claimed the screenshots were AI-generated and that Cormier deleted the post, which would mean Cormier somehow fell for fake DMs sent to his own account. Cormier’s counter-explanation was that he was hacked — and recovered his account within two minutes.
Trump’s explanation and Cormier’s explanation are mutually exclusive, and both fall apart on their own. Trump claimed the screenshots were AI-generated and pointed to Cormier deleting the post as evidence of fabrication — but deleting a post confirms it existed, and more critically, a person cannot be fooled by AI-generated fakes of their own direct messages, since the only way to verify a DM is to check your own inbox.
Cormier’s counter-explanation — that he was hacked — creates its own logical problem: he recovered his account and was posting again within a few minutes, which is not how hacked account recovery works. X’s own support documentation indicates that standard account recovery takes anywhere from several hours to multiple weeks. Two minutes is not a recovery timeline — it’s a deletion timeline.
It’s a lot of moving pieces, and none of them add up. Perhaps applying Occam’s razor to the situation is the path forward: the answer that requires the fewest assumptions is the correct one.