Daniel Cormier and Jon Jones are seemingly never going to get to a good place.
Cormier and Jones have one of the most heated rivalries in UFC history, and though both men are done competing and have not fought each other in nearly a decade, the animosity lives on. Recently, Cormier went on Club Shay Shay where he gave his MMA Mount Rushmore and left Jones off due to Jones’s history with failed drug tests. This, in turn, caused Jones to respond, ripping into Cormier for being insecure.
But speaking with Chael Sonnen on their ESPN show Good Guy/Bad Guy, Cormier makes the case that it’s actually Jones who has the issue here.
“Here’s the problem: I only answer the questions asked to me,” Cormier said. “That’s what I do. Guy asks me a question about Jon Jones, I tell him my truth. The reality is this though, I will always go above and beyond to credit him with being, a) toughest guy I’ve ever fought, b) the hardest fight, one of the smartest fighters in the octagon. I give him all the credit of being one of the best fighters ever, but I’m not going to say, ‘Oh yeah, you’re one of the four greatest fighters of all time,’ when, like you said Chael, over the course of that career, there was a moment where you made the decision to do something you weren’t supposed to to elevate you inside of an octagon in a fist fight.
“I also say this, Chael, he’s not the only guy I fought like that. He’s just the only one I couldn’t beat. I never took a drug test until I got to the UFC. So it’s not like these guys weren’t doing anything, he was just the one I couldn’t beat.
“So I give him credit, but the guy is so weird. He’s such a weird guy. Because even if I will talk about him — this was 20 minutes of me talking about him and polishing him up, telling him all the great things about what he does in the octagon. It’s the negative thing that he latches onto because that’s what he wants to do. He wants to latch onto that negative thing. When in reality, I feel like I was very fair.”
Of course, Cormier couldn’t leave it at that. He also felt compelled to respond to Jones’s resume measuring competition, by giving his own in comparison.
“To say, ‘made me feel inferior,’” Cormier said. “You were a high school state champion, I won three, and a world medal in high school, and I made the United States world team when I was in high school. You were a JUCO national champion, I won two of those, and became an NCAA All-American and finalist. Then I went on to make two Olympic teams and win six U.S. National titles. Then you went on to become the youngest champion in UFC history. Absolutely. I was a UFC champion, too. In two divisions. So how can you tell someone their inferior when all the accolades are kind of the same but better? They’re just better. How do you call somebody inferior?”
But perhaps in an effort to extend some sort of olive branch to Jones so this cycle of media name-calling can end, Cormier did say there is something he likes about Jones. Earlier this month, Jones made the case for being called “Forever Champion” due to his accolades, and that’s something Cormier can get behind.
“Jon wants to be called the ‘Forever Champion.’ He said that now he should be called the ‘Forever Champion’ because of all of his accomplishments in the UFC and how long its been. Now Chael, this Jon Jones, I like!” Cormier said. “This, I like! I don’t like the whiny little bitch. I like this because you went through three decades of fighter! Now, are we going to call him the Forever Champ? No. But that I kind of like.”
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VIDEO STEW
Tony Ferguson interview ahead of his Misfits debut.
Paul Hughes Fight Camp.
Michael Bisping in Thailand.
The MK Boys on UFC Shanghai.
FLAVOR IN YOUR EAR
Fighter vs. Writer.
SOCIAL MEDIA BOUILLABAISSE
Sean Strickland with a measured and reasonable take. Wow.
Sodiq Yusuff also very wise.
Merab Dvalishvili.
Fight! Fight! Fight!
Paulo Costa.
Bruce Buffer.
FIGHT ANNOUNCEMENTS
Mizuki Inoue (15-6) vs. Jacqueline Amorim (10-1); UFC 321, Oct. 25.
Billy Elekena (8-2) vs. Kevin Christian (9-3); UFC Fight Night, Nov. 1.
FINAL THOUGHTS
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