Jon Jones and Daniel Cormier really don’t seem to like each other. That one thing you must remember, or nothing that follows will seem wondrous.
Jones, the best fighter in the world, and Cormier, the UFC light heavyweight champion and best non-Jones light heavyweight in the world, will face off July 9 to culminate the blockbuster UFC 200. It’s a rematch of their fight from January of last year, which Jones won by decision.
But you know all that already. You know about the heat between them. You know about that scuffle on the media podium. You know about “you still there?” and “you think I’m just going to let you kill me?” and one thousand and one other neatly tweetable media clips that fluctuate, like many things in MMA, between the ridiculous and the terrifying.
Before we shoot down the chute of a packed event calendar that ends in Jones-Cormier 2, why don’t we now take a moment to remember how we got here? Why, exactly, do Jones and Cormier share what seems to be a mutual, visceral hatred? Why are they trying so hard to get inside the other’s metaphorical head? And what keeps their actual physical matchup—because, yes, cage fighting is still a part of MMA—so compelling?
Let us now recount the history of this rivalry. There are video clips. There are still photographs. There are text blocks. Please enjoy.