When it comes to genuine bad blood in MMA, you can count rivalries of those types on one hand. For some, it’s Conor McGregor vs Khabib Nurmagomedov, for old-school fans it still remains Jon Jones vs Daniel Cormier.
Two of the best light heavyweights in the division, still don’t seem to have ‘squashed the beef’ yet. Right from off-air death threats to in-person altercations, these two have been through it all.
The MMA community is still buzzing around UFC 285, an event that took place this past weekend where ‘Bones’ achieved a dominant victory over Ciryl Gane to attain the heavyweight gold. A couple of days after, he appeared to be back on the top of the pound-for-pound list, over the likes of Alexander Volkanovski and such.
However, Jones’ troubled past with multiple steroid allegations has left a permanent bitter taste in certain fans and fighters, the former two-division champ Daniel Cormier is one of them. In the most recent episode of ‘DC & RC’, he backed his “Why you can’t consider [Jon] Jones the GOAT” as he added, “I think especially with the drugs and the steroid failures and those type of things. I think when you have those things, it’s hard to call you the greatest of all time.”
While this statement doesn’t surprise a big chunk of the MMA community, DC sure did receive some backlash for ‘still hating on’ the Albuquerque resident. Some fans made the argument that Jon Jones has been officially cleared by the USADA, while others made comments reminding DC about his infamous ‘Towel-gate’ incident.
The Jon Jones and Daniel Cormier beef
Two of the elite light heavyweights, ‘Bones’ and DC go a long way when it comes to their rivalry. According to the 35-year-old, a misunderstood joke led to his beef with Daniel Cormier.
While recalling the UFC 121 backstage moment, Jones says, âI was backstage with my entourage; he was backstage with his entourage ⊠and one of my boys told me that DC was [Cain] Velasquezâs wrestling coach and he was an Olympian. So I thought that was really cool. I was kind of intrigued by that. I thought Iâd walk up to Daniel and start a new friendship.â
The current heavyweight champion further recalled, âI said to him, âHey, I hear youâre an okay wrestler, but I guarantee you I could take you down at a wrestling match,â and I thought he would laugh and say something like, âOh yeah? Well prove it,â or âYou sure about that, kid?â or something like that,â
While Jon believes this was the root of their long-running bad blood, DC believes such is not exactly the case. The two would go on to fight for the first time at UFC 182 where Jon secured a decisive victory over DC after a 5-round war. A rematch was scheduled to headline UFC 200 but got canceled due to Jones testing positive for two different estrogen blockers.
They would face each other in the Octagon one more time at UFC 214, where the bout resulted in Jones securing a TKO victory over DC in the third round. However, Jon tested positive for turinabol teroid, causing his victory to be overturned to a no-contest. Along with that, he also received a 15-month suspension.
One of the things that fans loved the most was to catch a glimpse of the ‘good guy’ Jon during the UFC 285 fight week. He tweeted, âDC you are more than welcome to commentate at my fight, I think you are really good at what you do. I trust that you would be non-biased. All the best brother.â
A few days after UFC 285, Jon appeared to send out the following tweet, insinuating that his long-time rival DC did not like watching the New Mexico resident secure a victory in his heavyweight debut. He pointed to DC’s ‘no smile’ attitude and threw shade at his analyst credentials.
My man couldnât even pretend to smile, it was pretty funny. Asking what happened, an experience former champion and analyst suddenly not being able to identify a guillotine. đ https://t.co/dgqcqdCO34
— BONY (@JonnyBones) March 9, 2023
While fans are not sure whether Jon is genuinely trying to squash his beef with DC or is this just one of his many mind games, what they do know is that people love it every time these two have a back-and-forth. What do you think about DC’s recent comments on Jon Jones’ greatness? Let us know in the comments down below.
