Jon Jones aspires to be extra like Daniel Cormier.
Contained in the Octagon, ‘Bones’ and ‘DC’ are two of the UFC’s fiercest rivals. However outdoors of the cage. … Okay, they nonetheless don’t like one another, however Jones believes the 2 may resolve a lot of their lingering animosity with a face-to-face dialog as a result of, to the shock of everybody, the UFC’s reigning heavyweight champion truly has plenty of admiration for the person Cormier is each out and in of the Octagon.
“I wanna take this time to thank Daniel Cormier for being my greatest rival and motivator,” Jones advised Goeffrey Woo. Daniel Cormier, he has completely no cause to hold his head. He has been a mannequin champion, a mannequin husband, a mannequin father, a teammate, a pacesetter. I aspire to be much more like that man as a result of he’s an incredible human being. Sadly, we’re opponents, however outdoors of that, he’s a real champion for the remainder of his life.
“Individuals attempt to make Daniel and I out to be these absolute archenemies. Should you have a look at aggressive athletes all through historical past, all of them come round… Outdoors of the game, I’ve no sick will towards Daniel. I believe he’s a really stand-up particular person, and I believe we’d truly make nice pals if we have been ever to sit down down in entrance of one another and actually simply chat it out.”
The Awkward Historical past of Jon Jones vs. Daniel Cormier
Jon Jones and Daniel Cormier fought twice, their first encounter happening at UFC 182. Jones finally received the bout by way of unanimous determination to retain his mild heavyweight title, however a month later, it was revealed that Jones had examined constructive for cocaine weeks earlier than the bout.
4 months later, ‘Bones’ was scheduled to defend his belt towards Anthony ‘Rumble’ Johnson. Nonetheless, Jones was stripped of his strap following a hit-and-run incident the place he crashed right into a pregnant girl after which fled the scene on foot. Because of this, Cormier stepped in for Jones and defeated Johnson to develop into the brand new mild heavyweight champion.
That set the stage for a rematch between Jones and Cormier, which went down at UFC 214 on July 29, 2017. Jones once more received the bout, this time by way of a third-round TKO.
Lower than a month later, it was revealed that Jones had been flagged for a doping violation by USADA stemming from a pattern collected on July 28 instantly following the weigh-ins.
USADA later confirmed that each the “A” and “B” samples of Jones examined constructive for the anabolic steroid Turinabol. Because of this, his win over Cormier was overturned to a no-contest, and the UFC stripped Jones of the title as soon as once more.
The promotion handed the belt again to ‘DC,’ who would go on to efficiently defend it towards Volkan Oezdemir earlier than including the undisputed heavyweight championship to his resume and retiring from the game in August 2020 as one in all solely 4 fighters to carry two UFC titles concurrently.
