‘Sick’ Cormier Thinks Jon Jones Is In ‘Ton Of Trouble’
Daniel Cormier has finally opened up about Jon Jones’ UFC 214 failed drug test.
Last week news broke that “Bones” had tested positive for the anabolic steroid Turinabol in a pre-fight drug test. Jones downed Cormier in the third round of their UFC 214 pay-per-view (PPV) main event meeting via head-kick, taking the title back from “DC” and reclaiming the top spot of the 205-pound mountain. After hearing news of Jones’ failed test while on vacation, Cormier claimed on today’s (Mon. August 28, 2017) The MMA Hour that he needed to lay down because his head was spinning and he felt sick (quotes via MMA Fighting):
“It takes time to get through something like [UFC 214],” Cormier said. “I’ve experienced it. I’ve experienced it at a high level with the Olympics and the Jones fights and the NCAA finals. It takes time to get over these things, and when you start to come around, the last thing you want to do is be sucked back into the situation that you’re trying to overcome. So it was tough. It took a day. I felt sick.
“We got to Disney Aulani (on vacation) and it was time to check in, and I had to go to my room and lay down, just because my head was spinning. Because you just don’t really know how to take news like that.”
Cormier is no stranger to the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) testing protocol, having dealt with them since 2001 during his Olympic days. After having been through this with Jones twice now, the first coming before their previously scheduled UFC 200 meeting last summer, Cormier doesn’t know what to believe as Jones is still entitled to the process of investigation moving forward before being deemed guilty:
“I’ve been in the USADA testing pool since 2001. That was when I first started to get tested by USADA, my first U.S. national team,” Cormier said.
“There wasn’t USADA when I first started MMA, but 2001 to ‘09, and then … USADA got [to the UFC] in ’15, so it’s been about nine years that I’ve been in this program. And all of this time that I was in the USADA program, I was actually taking supplements, and I never actually had anything like that happen. So I just don’t understand how something like that could happen, especially back-to-back.
“And I really want to be careful with how I answer these questions, because Jon is entitled to the process of what’s going to happen with his other tests. But I think in the last case (before UFC 200), they said he was reckless, so they gave him a year (suspension). How could you be reckless again going into another fight? It’s so odd. So for me, it’s very concerning, because it seems as though in the last two fights that him and I were supposed to fight, that something like that happens. And I don’t want to be sour grapes. That’s why it’s hard to answer the question — he won the fight. But it just makes it very odd.”
Although Cormier is extremely upset with how things played out, his coaches are also very ‘pissed’ after all the hard work the “DC” camp put into fight preparation:
“I’ll tell you, I’m upset, I was upset, I was very upset, but my coaches were upset,” Cormier said. “They were very, very upset, because they saw the work that we put into this, and it’s hard for me. I mean, if he did do something illegal — imagine if I did that at 38? To be able to wake up and not feel like I can’t walk down the stairs every morning? So that would really suck, and it’s pissed off my coaches, because those guys know the work that I put into that fight.”
If Jones is ultimately found guilty repercussions for the 30-year-old could stretch as far as a four year suspension and the reinstatement of Cormier as light heavyweight champion. Although Cormier is at no fault for the events that have transpired, his legacy will forever be intertwined with Jones’ shenanigans outside the cage:
“I think that’s what’s probably the worst part of it: ‘again,’” Cormier said. “That’s the problem. ‘Again.’ We’ve gone in these nasty circles time and time again, and just when you think that we were going to head off in different directions for awhile — because if I was to hope to get another fight against him, it was going to take some time and a big win, so I kinda figured we were heading in a different direction. And since the fight ended, every conversation that I had with my management, with my coaches, was ‘how do we find a way to do this again?’ And Bob Cookwas like, ‘I think the Jon Jones story is over.’ He said, ‘but we can be creative, if that’s what you really what.’ So I go, ‘how do we get it done?’ And that’s all we’ve thought about in terms of the fight aspect of it, but to hear something like this, something again that has nothing to do with me, it’s very frustrating.
“Again, my whole issue is just, I don’t understand how in these situations you could put yourself in — he’s in trouble, man. I mean, I’ve got to be honest with you, I think he’s in a ton of trouble now based of this thing coming back positive at all. And again, I’ve been in this program for a long time.
“For a steroid, especially a performance enhancer, especially if it is what they’re saying that it was, it’s going to be very difficult for this thing to be any different, I think. So I think he’s in a lot of trouble, and that’s sad, because the guy is very talented,” Cormier continued.
“You know what’s sad? I really don’t believe he ever needed to do anything wrong. And you see a lot of people just flat-out saying he cheated. I’ve seen Chael (Sonnen) and I’ve seen a lot guys, and obviously they’re not in the position that I’m in in regards to him and our fight, but he really didn’t need to do any of that stuff. And I think if he was doing that as long as I was saying he was doing it, I think it became just a comfort thing. That’s probably why he did it again. It sucks.”
