Jon Jones playing hard to get with Daniel Cormier

Former former UFC light heavyweight Jon Jones is about to return from a suspension that was reduced from a potential four years to 15 months after the fighter agreed to provide USADA with substantial assistance” – information that will lead to sanctioning of other indivduals. It has to be stressed when referencing Jones’ latest suspension that arbitrator Richard McLaren concluded, There was absolutely no intention to use Prohibited Substances [by Jones].

Champ champ Daniel Cormier wants a trilogy fight, after losing the first two, with one bout outcome changed to a No Contest. However, in an interview with Ariel Helwani for ESPN, Jones expressed disinterest.

“I already have all the marbles when it comes to Daniel Cormier,” said Jones. “I’ve beaten him twice. This game has never been personal. What is personal to me is chasing greatness, not individuals. So in the case of myself and Daniel Cormier, he needs to fight myself one more time if he ever wants to be considered one of the all-time greats. I don’t need to fight him again to be considered one of the all-time greats. I have many more years to prove it.”

Cormier has criticized Jones’ latest suspension, calling it a joke in terms of leniency, and characterizing his opponent as a “cheater and a snitch.”

“I think this is just another way for him to blame something for him getting knocked out in our last fight,” said Jones. “At the end of the day, the way it was described to me, the amount of steroids that were found in my body was the equivalent of throwing a pinch of salt in an Olympic-size swimming pool. There was so little of it in my body, there’s no scientific way possible that this could have affected my performance. There’s no reason for him to be mad at USADA. USADA didn’t get him knocked out.”

“Challenging Daniel Cormier for the heavyweight championship would be me making it personal, and it’s not personal. I’m not the one who went home crying the first and second times we fought. That was him. There’s nothing inside of me that wants to take things from him or make his life harder in any way. I just want what’s rightfully mine. He can have what’s rightfully his, and we can all get along.”

However, Jones mused over something not likely to engender good will between the pair.

“If USADA came to the conclusion that all the science points to this being a complete accident and unintentional, a part of me feels like the belt should be handed back to me,” he said. “A part of me feels like I shouldn’t even have to fight for the belt against Alexander Gustafsson because I was proven innocent. In a way, the belt was never his in the first place. He was given the belt.”

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