Jones, Cormier amp up the verbal sparring
The animus between Jon Jones and Daniel Cormier that’s on very public display ahead of their light heavyweight title fight at Saturday’s UFC 214 began out of public view nearly seven years ago.
“From that very first instance it was, ‘I’m better than you,’ ” Cormier said in describing his first meeting with Jones in a conference call with reporters on Monday. “From that moment, even if it was in jest, it was something competitive. That’s what formed the foundation of his and my relationship.”
That chance first meeting came at backstage at UFC 121 in October 2010, coincidentally, where the two will headline at Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif.. It predated Jones’ run as UFC’s light heavyweight champ — and subsequent loss of the belt for disciplinary reasons — and even Cormier’s UFC debut in April 2013.
“I didn’t know who he was,” Jones said. “He knew who I was before we met. ... He has a problem with me. I hate him because he hates me.”
The insults, usually including curse words, flew during Monday’s hour-long chat with reporters as they have in the oft-delayed rematch of Jones’ victory via a decision against Cormier at UFC 182 in January 2015. Jones was stripped of the title and suspended by UFC four months later for his role in a hit-and-run accident in New Mexico.
The two were slated to fight in April 2016 before that bout was delayed because of an injury Cormier suffered in training, not long after the two clashed in a promotional event where then-UFC public relations executive Dave Sholler was tossed off the stage.
The rescheduled fight was scrubbed when Jones was notified of an anti-doping violation — he blamed a sexual-enhancement supplement — days before UFC 200 last July.
The resulting one-year ban expired July 5, although there’s apparently no end date to the two fighters’ feud.
“You know you aren’t finishing nobody,” Cormier chimed in unprompted after Jones answered a reporter’s question. “What was the last time you finished anybody? Now, you’re going to come back after all this time away and finish me? You’ve lost your mind.”
Jones, who sounded increasingly annoyed at Cormier as the call progressed, said he didn’t care what Cormier or anyone else thinks about how he’s viewed.
“I’ve given up on that,” Jones said. “I don’t give a crap of what people think of me at this stage in my career. Not even an ounce. I’m happy with the person that I am, the fighter that I am, the friend that I am, the teammate that I am.
“(Expletive) it. Call me the the bad guy. I am not fighting to be the good guy.”