Daniel Cormier sends message to Jake Paul sitting cageside at UFC 261 as ‘f*ck Jake Paul’ chant breaks out

Daniel Cormier is calling the fights at UFC 261, but it sounds like he might make a brief return from retirement if a certain YouTube celebrity gets too close to him.

In the middle of the featured preliminary bout between Randy Brown and Alex Oliveira, the Jacksonville faithful at the VyStar Memorial Arena began chanting “f*ck Jake Paul” rather loudly.

Once UFC color commentator Joe Rogan realized what was happening, he mentioned it on the broadcast after Paul made his way to a nearby seat in the arena.

That’s when Cormier revealed that he had just had an altercation with Paul after they had exchanged several messages over social media in the past week since the 24-year-old Ohio native knocked out Ben Askren at the Triller Fight Club pay-per-view.

“I just saw Jake Paul and I pointed at him and said don’t play with me,” Cormier said. “Cause I’ll smack him in the face. He’s right there. I’ll slap [him]. I don’t play those games, Joe.”

For the first event back with a full crowd in attendance, the audience certainly let Paul hear it as he made his way to his seats and engaged with Cormier right away.

At some point, Cormier even went over to the area where Paul was sitting where harsh words were likely exchanged until security eventually intervened.

Prior to Saturday night, Cormier had already shot down a challenge from Paul for an actual fight after the outspoken social influencer started taking jabs at him after his win over Askren.

Judging by the reaction at UFC 261, the war of words between Cormier and Paul is continuing even with fights taking place just a few feet away in the octagon.