Daniel Cormier denies Jon Jones’ claim he ‘Never cheated’ amid USADA dispute: ‘You can’t rewrite history’
Former two-weight UFC champion, Daniel Cormier has denied claims from two-time foe, Jon Jones that he “never cheated the sport”, amid the impending exit of USADA (United States Anti-Doping Agency) pointing to the Endicott native’s three prior violations of the anti-doping policy.
Cormier, a former undisputed light heavyweight and heavyweight champion under the banner of the promotion, has since switched his hand to analyst work and color-commentary for the Dana White-led promotion, retiring from active competition back in 2020 after a trilogy rubber-match loss to Stipe Miocic.
Sharing the Octagon twice with incumbent heavyweight champion, Jones during their respective light heavyweight stints, Cormier dropped a unanimous decision loss to the former, before seeing a high-kick KO loss overturned to an official ‘No Contest’ in a 2017 title fight rematch.
Reacting to news of the impending ending of UFC’s business dealings with USADA, Jones, who returns to the Octagon at UFC 295 next month at Madison Square Garden, pleaded his innocence, insisting he had never cheated in mixed martial arts.
“Man, I survived USADA,” Jon Jones posted on his official X account. “First they said I was guilty of having picograms, then they considered me innocent, next, picograms became legal. Guess what, I’m still here, still unbeaten.”
“That BS no contest over DC (Daniel Cormier) needs to be taken off my record,” Jon Jones continued. “I’ve never cheated this sport and I will stand by that until the day I die.”
Daniel Cormier points to Jon Jones’ prior drug test infringements in the UFC
Sharing his thoughts on Jones’ call for a re-instated knockout win over himself, Cormier pointed to Jones’ prior positive test results for the banned substances, turinabol, and a separate violation for both clomiphene, and letrozole.
“People will try to rewrite history,” Daniel Cormier said on his YouTube channel. “You can’t rewrite history. There’s gonna be a time – it was multiple times [Jon Jones tested positive] – you can try to rewrite history and it’ll be like during baseball there was the steroid era and all those guys don’t get to go into the Hall of Fame.”
“Will we look back on 2015 to 2023 as the USADA era?” Cormier questioned. “And will these guys that had these things deal with issues going forward in terms of tainting their résumé, especially if someone that is middling now becomes an absolute superstar after USADA is gone?”
“We have a short memory as MMA fans,” Cormier explained. “Our memory is super short. But let me say this, you don’t get to rewrite history. You don’t get to say – well, first off, I don’t believe that it’s all true. This is one of the reasons Jones and I could never just truly come to a common ground because sometimes you just say whatever you want.” (H/T MMA Fighting)
Do you agree with Daniel Cormier’s thoughts on rival Jon Jones?
