News of former UFC light heavyweight champ Jon Jones’ unusual USADA settlement has burned through the MMA scene like a wildfire, eliciting excitement and disgust and confusion all around. Jones was looking down the barrel of a four year suspension for his second USADA violation, this time failing for the steroid Turinabol. Instead USADA handed out a year and a half suspension that was then knocked down to 15 months by an arbitrator.
This means Jones is pretty much ready to fight as soon as the UFC can book him. And of course all eyes are now on the man who holds Jones’ former title, Daniel Cormier. Cormier just happened to be in the UFC Tonight studio and reluctantly addressed the situation with Kenny Florian.
”I’m the UFC double champion,” Cormier said. “I have bosses in the back, and I’m talking about this guy because I have to. I’ve moved past that. I mean, I went about my business. I went and won another title. This guy, I guess … now his suspension is up. So we’ll see what happens.”
Following USADA’s official ruling on Jon Jones, @dc_mma speaks on the possibility of DC vs Jones 3. pic.twitter.com/MVQSOY83dg
— FOX Sports: UFC (@UFCONFOX) September 20, 2018
And while that open ended statement may seem like Cormier is open to the idea of fighting Jones, he followed that up with what sounded like several nopes.
”I think people get excited,” he said when Florian straight up asked if a fight was possible. “People get excited about the prospect of us fighting again. But I’ve got a fight with Brock Lesnar. Why would I look back?”
”Why would I look back to Jones now when I’ve got a fight? Obviously as a competitor I want to fight the guy who beat me twice. But I’ve got a fight so why go back? This is a bigger fight. I’ve got a bigger fight with Brock Lesnar. Why should I go back?”
Unfortunately for Cormier, he doesn’t really have a fight with Brock Lesnar. Sure, they did the whole dramatic shove thing after UFC 226, but there’s no bout agreement in place for the two of them to fight. As it stands, the UFC or Lesnar or both could decide that it’d be bigger business to have the WWE superstar fight the winner of Jones vs. Cormier.
Like the rest of us, Cormier also sounded shocked at how this USADA thing played out.
”Here’s the deal: when it comes to USADA, they can’t come to my house any more at 6AM,” Cormier said. “What’s the point? They’ve come to my house 15 times. When it comes to USADA they can’t come to my house any more. You don’t need to. You don’t need to come, I’m not going to fail any tests. I’m not going to make any mistakes. I’m not going to have to sit up there and say ‘I’m serious this time, guys, I promise I really wasn’t trying to cheat.’”
”70 times,” he finished. “70 times since I started wrestling internationally, and I have never made a mistake. It’s not that hard. So even having to sit here and do this again shows that this guy’s ridiculous.”