A decade-old rivalry between UFC heavyweight champion Jon Jones and former champion Daniel Cormier has sparked back up after Jones made light of Cormier’s reign during Jones’ absence from the division.
Jones was answering fan comments when he replied to a response regarding him possibly “holding up the [heavyweight] division.”
Soon thereafter, Jones also replied to remarks about the UFC implementing an interim championship in his recent absence due to injury:
“UFC is a brilliant company, did what they had to do to save the event,” Jones said. He then added a jab at Cormier’s title reign implying that the now-retired fighter wasn’t actually the real champion.
“I do agree with you,” he told the fan. “It definitely confused a bunch of UK fans,” he said in reference to English fighter and interim champion Tom Aspinall.
“[It] got them entitled thinking their boy really is the champion. It reminds me of when DC was the ‘champion’ during my absence.”
‘It’s not the same, while it may seem the same. [Jones] was incapable of competing when I was the champion. He was not allowed to compete.’
Cormier reluctantly responded to Jones days later on his YouTube channel, insisting that the comparison between his time as champion and Aspinall’s are not the same.
“It’s not the same, while it may seem the same. [Jones] was incapable of competing when I was the champion. He was not allowed to compete, not due to injury, due to illegal substances found in his body, that’s just the truth,” Cormier explained.
“Whenever him and I were fighting and he kept getting in trouble, he could not go ‘I’m back in the gym’ and say ‘I’m ready to fight,’ you couldn’t. It was illegal. That’s where the situation varies, that’s why the situation is different, and that’s such a key component to the situations being different.”
Cormier described Jones as a manipulator who is very good at “slight of hand” and distracting fans from his real issues.
“Jones, it wasn’t the same thing, bud. So, no matter how quickly you are, and the magician you are, at manipulating and saying this and the other, that’s not the case. It was different, you couldn’t compete whenever I was fighting. You couldn’t, you couldn’t make that decision to go and fight. I was the champion, for a really long time actually, which is kind of crazy.”
The rivalry dates back to the pair’s first 2015 fight, where Jones defended the light-heavyweight belt against Cormier, and then beat him again in 2017.
During that time, Jones was stripped of the belt twice for alleged conduct and substance abuse violations and then had the second victory overturned due to the alleged use of a metabolite.
The back and forth antics led to Cormier holding the light-heavyweight title multiple times between 2015-2018, before vacating the belt — Dec. 2018 — after winning the heavyweight title earlier that year. Jones later retook the vacant light-heavyweight title, before winning the heavyweight title after Cormier’s retirement from the division following two losses.
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Source: TheBlaze
