UFC light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier recently appeared on Toe-2-Toe with Brian Stann on SiriusXM Rush, and said he was hesitant to pull out of the fight with former champion Jon Jones at UFC 197, because he beleives Jones is primed to lose.
“I’ve never pulled out of a fight before and there was a lot that went into this decision,” said Cormier, as transcribed by Jed Meshew for MMA Fighting. “Because I truly do believe, and I think this is why it was so hard to actually make the call, because I truly do believe that right now is when he’s primed to get beat.”
‘With everything that, all the factors. The first time under USADA testing, meaning no more rehydration IV wise. Meaning that he’s been away from the game for a little bit. People kind of harp on the fact that it’s been a year since he’s fought, a year and a half, that’s not the thing. Jon Jones has only fought me and Glover Texeira in two years. In two years, he’s had two fights. Right now, I thought, right now is the time that he’s ready to get beat if there ever was a time. So it made for a tougher decision because, in April of 2014 he fought Glover and then he fought me in January and he hasn’t fought since.”
“So the time away. First time not dealing with the hydration through IV. First time under such strict testing with USADA. All these factors play it to me like ‘man I’ve gotta get him in the octagon right now as I think this is the time that he’s ready to get beat.’
Cormier did not cite Jones’ most recent legal issues as a factor, and was sympathetic to his case. Jones was jailed for two nights after he received five tickets for a single incident in which he revved the engine of his Corvette, and allegedly started quickly. No ticket was issued for speeding, although the speed limit was just 30 MPH.
Albuquerque’s Action 7 news obtained copies of civilian complaints against Officer Jason Brown through a public information request, and reports that there are eight complaints, with three for racial profiling.
“Profiling is a problem,” said Attorney Vincent Ward to Action 7 News. “It’s a legal problem, and if Jon committed a traffic offense then he should be held accountable for the traffic offense for the facts, and not because of his race. I can’t think of any plausible reason for targeting Jon Jones other than something about Jon Jones, and Jon Jones happens to be black, and he’s not the first black person or person of color in this city who has been targeted by this officer.”
Albuquerque police spokesperson Celina Espinoza said the department does not tolerate racial profiling, and has the Civilian Police Oversight Agency (CPOA) review grievances about same.
“All police complaints, whether it’s rudeness, bias-based policing, inappropriate use of force, whatever it might be — if it comes in from a civilian to our department, that’s automatically handle by the CPOA,” said Espinoza. “All of the complaints that have been made against Officer Brown have been investigated thoroughly, and not a single one has been substantiated.”
Espinoza said attorneys use bias claims to try to clear their clients of DUI charges. In turn, attorney Ward criticized the CPOA.
“The officer who has a history of making stops like this, numerous citizens have complained about him because of racial bias,” said Ward. “I think that it is a fair question whether Jon was pulled over and cited because of something other than what he did. Here it may be because Jon is black. I’ve received calls at my office about this officer, unrelated to people that have filed complaints against him, so I think that there’s a serious problem and at this point, I am investigating the situation. I think that there isn’t valid basis at all for the citations, and it appears to me that racial bias may be at play.”
“If Mr. Jones were drag racing that day, or that evening, it was essentially the slowest drag race in the history of Albuquerque. The reason that the officer didn’t cite Jon for speeding was because he wasn’t. I still have no idea how one could possibly drag race where the speed limit is 30 mph and not exceed the speed limit. It’s just factually impossible.”
Jones offered a reaction, via Instagram.
Officer Brown all over the news in Albuquerque after reporters dig up how many times he has been in trouble for racial profiling in the past. Being a father of biracial children, I’m definitely not one to pull the race card. At the same time, I’m not necessarily surprised about this discovery after the run in I had with him. Having him stand there, look me in the eyes and start accusing me of several things him and I both know I didn’t do made me feel let down by the community, made me feel powerless, he made me feel like what was actually true had no power over him. Now it’s easier for me to understand why so many people hold resentment towards law enforcement. Officer brown almost single-handedly ruined my trust in law-enforcement. The sad thing about it is, I actually went to school for criminal justice, I wanted to be an officer myself. Fortunately I know better than to let one person ruin my views of a whole group. Just glad people are finally bringing light to who I was dealing with that night.
Cormier too was swayed by what may be a troubling pattern on the part of Officer Brown.
“In that instance, I do believe that there was a little more to it than just maybe him drag racing,” said Cormier. “And you know I don’t generally like to agree with anything that Jones does, but in that situation I do believe there was way more to that than what’s led to be. And when they go to court, I think it’s going to come out. But the fact that this guy’s history is starting to come out shows the fact that there are some more things underlying the situation.”
Setting aside the legal issues, Cormier believes Jones is uniquely situated to lose, due to cage rust, and the new rehydration protocols. However, it is expected Jones will still defeat Ovince Saint Preux on April 23. The next fight would then be a unification bout between Cormier and Jones, and for that fight, there will be no cage rust, and Jones will be used to the new rehydration rules.
So Cormier’s injured leg may have dragged him out of reach of a golden opportunity.
