To Jon Jones, what has become one of the nastiest and most personal feuds in MMA history is potentially almost over. If Jones defeats Daniel Cormier again at UFC 200 and unifies the light heavyweight belts, Cormier will be out of sight and out of mind possibly forever. It seems like defeating Cormier is a foregone conclusion for Jones, simply because Jones has no respect for Cormier, the man or fighter. Jones did things to Cormier that no one’s been able to do, and now Jones is even more motivated to get his undisputed belt back at UFC 200.
To illustrate his lack of respect for Cormier, Jones dished out the ultimate insult to a fighter in an interview with the UFC Ultimate Insider Podcast. He said Cormier didn’t hit hard.
“The funny thing about him saying that is, Daniel Cormier doesn’t punch hard. I think the only person I can recall him knocking out is ‘Bigfoot’ Silva. I’m not trying to offend ‘Bigfoot’ Silva but, I mean, he’s not known to have the strongest chin in the game. So, you name anybody else who he knocked out with one punch and walked away, I don’t think I’ve seen it.”
“In my fight with Daniel Cormier, he always talks about how I was working his body and I kicked him in the ribs and I kneed him in the ribs, and these body shots that really sent a shockwave going through his body,” Jones said. “But at no point in the fight did one of his punches do anything to me, or kicks. At no point in the fight did he get me to bleed. At no point in the fight did he get me to lose my breath or to look up at the clock out of frustration. At no point did he wobble me with a punch. I mean, Daniel Cormier caught me with like 60 uppercuts in that fight, and I’m exaggerating. Not one of those uppercuts did anything to me.
Jones continued with his fiery rant.
“Never made me stumble. None of his kicks made me back up or stop moving forward. So, he’s trying paint this picture of me not being a powerful guy, but I kicked his ass. And I actually hurt him with strikes, where he did nothing to me. I’ve heard him in interviews say that he’s going to walk me down and take me down right away because obviously I don’t have the stopping power to stop him from walking forward. But the reality is, if I wanted to go out there and walk him down, take him down for the sixth time, he doesn’t have the stopping power to stop me.”
Of course, it’s hard to move forward on a guy with the reach and proclivity to eye poke like Jones, but that’s just one part of the impossible-to-solve puzzle that is Bones.
So if Jones’ trash talk/insight comes true, and Cormier gets defeated by the GOAT for the second time, what happens? Where could the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix champion and UFC light heavyweight champion go after another loss to Jones? Cormier can go back up to heavyweight where he’s undefeated. Or will he stick around at light heavyweight and try to climb the mountain once again?
Of course, what if Jones is pulling a Luke Rockhold and is disrespecting Cormier so much that he gets caught. Michael Bisping proved once again at UFC 199 that anything can happen in the fight game, so maybe UFC 200 has a big surprise in store that would lead to a rubber match between these two enemies.
(Via MMA Fighting)
