If you ask former UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones, Daniel Cormier has no place in MMA’s Greatest of all Time debate. Jones made his opinions on the matter abundantly clear earlier this week, replying to a Tweet from the official UFC Twitter account, and arguing that Cormier’s name should not be mentioned when attempting to identify the GOAT in MMA.
what have you done for me lately? Let’s just be real and stop asking this question https://t.co/Tw3FcpH3bK
— BONY (@JonnyBones) June 20, 2018
“What have you done for me lately?” Jones said in his reply. “Let’s just be real and stop asking this question.”
If he’s in the conversation does that make me the motherfucking man? https://t.co/cEnNRayEus
— BONY (@JonnyBones) June 20, 2018
“If [Cormier’s] in the conversation does that make me the motherfucking man?” he asked.
Now, Cormier has responded to these comments. Apparently, he’s not even willing to give Jones the time of day.
“[Jones] doesn’t have a platform and I refuse to give him a platform,” Cormier told CBS Sports. “He’s a nobody. He has been suspended again. He’s mired in controversy for drug abuse. Your issues are tied to steroids, performance enhancers. You don’t get a platform when you’re like that. It’s like me glorifying Lance Armstrong.”
“[Jones] won the fight but, hey, since USADA has gotten involved with the UFC, he only fought one time,” Cormier added. “He has had four fights scheduled. So he fought Ovince [Ovince Saint Preux in 2016] and he fought me but that second one was a no contest. The Ovince fight was the only time he fought and there was no controversy surrounding it. So I’m pretty sure there was some dirty stuff going on [in our first fight]. That’s why the test results were all jacked up in December.”
At present, Daniel Cormier is gearing up for a UFC 226 heavyweight title super fight with UFC heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic. If he wins this fight, he’ll be one of just two men in UFC history to hold titles in two weight classes concurrently — the other being Conor McGregor.
This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 6/24/2018.