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What's the story?
UFC Heavyweight Champion Daniel Cormier was recently interviewed by Ariel Helwani on ESPN, at Ariel Helwani's MMA Show via Skype. During the show, Daniel Cormier talked about his dramatic sneeze before UFC 230 almost resulting in a cancelled main event, his UFC 230 fight against Derrick Lewis, a potential date for his fight with Brock Lesnar, his opinion on Jon Jones USADA sentencing, and retiring from the UFC.
During the interview, he also talked about how he did not need to fight Jon Jones anymore, and how he had made peace with it.
In case you didn't know...
Daniel Cormier and Jon Jones have quite the history together. The two fighters have met in the Octagon on prior occasions, and on both such occasions, Jon Jones scored a knockout victory over Cormier.
The last time that Cormier had faced Jones, after the fight Jones had been flagged for violating USADA's policy. He had taken an illegal substance prior to their fight, resulting in the result being overturned. When this happened, Cormier said that after Jones completed his 4-year suspension he would be there to fight him.
The heart of the matter
Since the time Cormier announced his intention to fight Jones, things have changed a lot for both fighters.
First of all, instead of the expected 4-years, Jones was only handed a 15-month suspension. On the other side of things, Cormier had an excellent year in 2018 and announced that he would be retiring on the 20th of March in 2019.
During the interview, Ariel Helwani asked if it was indeed true he would never face Jon Jones one more time. Cormier categorically refused and made his position about the fight clear to anyone who was watching.
"Yeah, no that's it, man, that's it. I don't need it anymore. Sometimes you need things, sometimes you don't. I don't understand the logic of I need anyone anymore."
He went on to say that Jones had been away so much from the UFC due to suspensions, Cormier had a hard time believing that Jones was truly back in the game.
"History shows that there will probably be some sort of issue, either before the Gustafsson fight or after the Gustafsson fight. If not for the Gustafsson fight, we schedule a fight, there will be an issue, there's always been an issue."
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He also expressed his doubts saying that there would be another issue with him if they scheduled a fight with him, and that would leave Cormier in a fix. He mentioned that he had expected Jones to be out longer and had come to terms with ending his career without the Jones fight, and now that he was back nothing had changed.
What's next?
It does not appear as if Daniel Cormier will be facing Jon Jones after all, and his last fight could be a fight against WWE Universal Champion Brock Lesnar at UFC 235 instead.
Do you think Daniel Cormier should have one last fight against Jon Jones? Why or why not? Leave your thoughts in the comments below!
