Daniel Cormier Trashes Jon Jones’ Dominant UFC 232 Performance
In the feature bout of UFC 232 last weekend (Sat. December 29, 2018), Jon Jones reclaimed UFC gold.
“Bones” defeated Alexander Gustafsson in dominant fashion to reclaim the UFC light heavyweight title. Jones was able to take Gustafsson down in the third round with ground-and-pound for the TKO win. Now, Jones once again sits atop the UFC 205-pound mountain, and the possibilities are endless for 2019.
But the clear possibility is a trilogy match with longtime rival and current UFC heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier. Cormier spoke on “The MMA Hour” earlier today and admitted that Jones running through an opponent the caliber of Gustafsson was “impressive”:
“Well, I mean, anytime you can go through a guy like Alexander Gustafsson, in the fashion that he did, is very impressive,” Cormier said. “I have never shied away from the fact that the guy is a phenomenal mixed martial artist. And I think he fought well. Yeah, I thought he fought well. Fought exactly as he intended to and was able to completely to shut down Alex. Yeah, he did a good job.”
Not The ‘Fastest?’
However, Cormier did point out one thing he noticed in Jones’ performance. He thought “Bones” looked a bit slow inside the Octagon against his Swedish counterpart. Cormier never thought Jones was never an explosive guy
“I just think that – he was never a guy that wowed you with his speed,” Cormier said. “Some guys just have, like, blazing hand speed. Jones is always a bit of a tactician, a guy that breaks you down over the course of the fight. I didn’t anticipate him being Anthony Johnson, or freaking Yoel Romero or any of those guys that are super crazy explosive and fast.
“But I saw, just, in terms of the movement, you know, I felt it was more measured. And maybe that was the game-plan. He made it seem as though he did exactly what he wanted. So maybe the measured pace was what they intended to do when they got into the Octagon. I think he’s always been the kind of guy that isn’t the fastest, and on Saturday, he didn’t look really fast.”
