Jon Jones: Daniel Cormier Was Not My Toughest Opponent

Jon Jones is done with Daniel Cormier. In fact, he doesn’t even consider “DC” to be his toughest opponent inside the Octagon.

Speaking on “The Ariel Helwani MMA Show” earlier today (Mon. June 24, 2019), Jones was asked about Cormier claiming he’d cut down to 205 pounds one last time to fight Jones a third time. Jones was confident that Cormier wouldn’t go through with such a claim, as he knows what it’s like to be defeated by “Bones” twice already:

“He won’t do it,” Jones said. “He won’t do it. I just think it takes a lot out of him to make that weight cut. I haven’t seen him in person but I hear that he’s bigger than ever. To lose all that weight and to come up short a third time, it just takes a lot of courage I’d imagine.

“I don’t think he has the balls to do it. I think he knows what to say to the people to appear not afraid of me, but I think deep down inside he knows what it’s like to lose to me twice, going home, crying – I just doubt he’s going to do that to himself again.”

Jones and Cormier first met back in January of 2015 at UFC 182. The light heavyweight champ successfully retained his title against “DC” via unanimous decision after five hard-fought rounds. Jones was soon stripped of the title due to his issues outside of the cage, but reclaimed the throne in 2017 with a third-round KO win over Cormier at UFC 214.

Of course, that win was later overturned to a No Contest due to more troubles with the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), but Jones regained the title when he defeated Alexander Gustafsson for the vacant strap this past December. Jones claims that the Swede, Gustafsson, is actually the toughest test he has ever faced inside of the Octagon. Not Cormier:

“”I don’t know, I don’t really care what Daniel Cormier does honestly. I’ve been done with him. Daniel Cormier is not my toughest opponent, I’d say Alexander Gustafsson was my toughest opponent. He’s not this rival that the world wants him to be to me. He’s a guy that I’ve beat twice.”