Following his crushing win over Daniel Cormier and the recovery of his light heavyweight belt at UFC 214, Jon Jones is on a little media victory lap, appearing on Good Morning America plus videos for Sports Illustrated. And for the first time in a while, those interviews weren’t completely focused on his years of legal troubles and suspensions. Feels good, man.
The big question everyone has right now: is Jon Jones about to fight Brock Lesnar? Well, despite rumors that maybe Lesnar has somehow secretly re-entered the USADA testing pool, Jones himself doesn’t think that fight will be next for him.
“I think it may be a while before Brock Lesnar’s eligible to fight,” he told Good Morning America. “Right now I’m just waiting for the UFC on some different ideas outside of him.”
There’s certainly some good possibilities out there, like Alexander Gustafsson. ‘The Mauler’ used his 81.2 inch reach to give Jones the most trouble he’s ever had in the Octagon, barely losing a razor thin decision back in 2013. And despite retiring earlier this year, knock out artist Anthony ‘Rumble’ Johnson’s name keeps coming up as a potential opponent for Jones as well. One person not in the discussion is Daniel Cormier, who Jones has spent years feuding with. Regarding that, Jon sounds ready to move on.
“There are so many memes that I’ve been seeing on the internet of him crying, so I’m sure he has to have some sort of sore feelings when it comes to me,” Jones told Sports Illustrated. “But I’d love to be at a place with him where we can respect each other, work together. I could show up to his charity events in the future, same if he could do the same for me. I’d love to have that open communication with him because we’ve been a part of each other’s lives for two years. He’s been the only thing I’ve talked about for two years and vice versa, so I feel connected to him forever, and it would be nice to be able to call him up and just check on him and have respect.”
As for the controversial interview that spawned those endless ‘Crying Cormier’ memes, Jones felt like it was justified. But not because of any bad will or because it puts a bow on that pre-fight interview where they heckled each other for crying.
“I think the fans deserved to see Daniel in that raw state,” he said. “It is kind of unfair to Daniel. but to the fans? I’m sure they loved to see just the raw emotion that goes into this. It was just so real and that’s the UFC’s slogan. UFC: We’re as real as it gets. It was very real and I’m sure the fans appreciated it. I could see how if you’re in Daniel’s camp, I could see why you hate that moment.”
