UFC Hall of Famer, Daniel Cormier and heavyweight champion Jon Jones have a history of heated encounters. But the duo have tempered down since then. Years after the Cormier-Jones championship saga, the tension between the two has eased. There was a time when the two men couldn’t be in the same room together. But over the years, cooler heads have prevailed. That does not mean ‘DC’ is all on the forget and forgive trail.
There’s no hand-holding and singing “Kumbaya” between the two. Jon Jones snagged the UFC HW title with a quick submission of Ciryl Gane in January 2023. Out on a pectoral injury, as he awaits a return, many of his vices and alcoholism issues often resurface. Subsequently, Cormier was at the UFC 305 pay-per-view (PPV) event panelist at the Morning Weigh-In Show live Friday at 5:50 pm ET / 2:50 pm PT. When Dominick Cruz put ‘Bones’ on his drinking buddy list, Cormier could not help but roll over in hysteric laughter.
You’re drinking with Jon Jones bro?! [laughs…]
Daniel Cormier via the UFC 305 Morning Weigh-In Show; 🎥: @ufc on YT
Even recently, Jones chose to slam the likes of Cormier, Jan Blachowicz, and even other of the United Kingdom’s top standouts to justify his title unification snub of one Tom Aspinall. When the Team Jackson’s MMA Acoma champ drew a parallel between Cormier and Aspinall both having won pseudo titles in his absence, ‘DC’ had hit back. Cormier was unable to wrestle the title from Jones. However, four months after UFC 182, Cormier won gold from Anthony ‘Rumble’ Johnson.
But per Daniel Cormier, the “prodigal” champ kept running into trouble due to his alcoholism, domestic dispute, multiple arrests, and so on. ‘Bones’ was even the first in UFC competition to strip off two titles following his return at UFC 197. As such, this isn’t the first time Cormier has jibed these down.
Daniel Cormier: Undefeated Jon Jones never forced ‘to look in the mirror’
Just mere hours after his HOF induction, Jones, then 34, faced arrest by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. Jones’ daughter asked for the police after her mother got locked out of their hotel room after arguing. Jon Jones headbutted the police, per bodycam footage by The Las Vegas Review-Journal, while questioning. He was arrested for misdemeanor battery domestic violence, and felony.
Daniel Cormier thinks Jon Jones needed a reality check in defeat (Source: heavy.com/bleacherreport.com)Instead of the domestic violence charges against Jones, he pleaded guilty to tampering with a police vehicle for a $750 fine. Speaking to what then was his ESPN show “DC & RC,” Daniel Cormier said how he felt responsible for some of it. Because he or anyone else never defeated ‘Bones’ hard enough to retrospect into the mirror.
I said some things back in 2017 before we fought the second time, …I spoke to mistakes and how when you make mistakes, they change you…but I also take a bit of responsibility… didn’t beat him. Chael Sonnen didn’t beat him. So many people didn’t beat him. We never forced him to look in the mirror … because all his bad behavior still led to success. And so, why change it? Why change it? It’s unfortunate.
Daniel Cormier via the ‘DC & RC’ Show/ 🎥 Credit: @ESPNMMA on YT
Soon, USADA flagged Jones for a positive test pool for the anabolic steroid Turinabol. And then there was a hit-and-run, DWI arrests, etc. The trouble did not stop there. Piling to a years-long history of legal trouble, an article by the ABQ Raw News recently reported that an intoxicated Jones threatened to kill the UFC’s new anti-doping program tester. Cormier surprisingly came to his aid on this occasion after the media bombardment. ‘DC’ however feels that nobody checked his ego hard enough to stop these traits.
