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Daniel Cormier laughs off Tito Ortiz’ comments about beating Jon Jones.
UFC Hall of Famer Tito Ortiz stirred up the headlines earlier this week when he claimed that he would put up a much better fight against Jon Jones than Daniel Cormier ever could.
In fact, 44-year-old Ortiz believes he would be able to defeat the reigning light heavyweight champion with the right training camp.
“I think I would do a lot better against Jon Jones than Daniel Cormier, because Cormier is just a shorter guy (with) bigger legs, bigger torso,” Ortiz said recently on the Domenick Nati Show. “He’s just a big, big guy.”
“Yup, I think I could. If I have a camp like I did the last one of 18 weeks, 100 percent. “There really hasn’t been anybody to fight Jon Jones, to get in his face, and stay in his face. Everybody else, they want to strike on the outside with him. He’s too damn long, you cannot do that. You got to get in the inside of him. That’s the way to fight him.”
Ortiz, who now competes under the Combate Americas banner, hasn’t fought in the UFC in over seven years. The former light heavyweight champ parted ways with the promotion after suffering his third consecutive loss, dropping a unanimous decision to fellow Hall of Famer Forrest Griffin at UFC 148.
Cormier, who was bested by Jones at UFC 182 and UFC 214 (latter win overturned to a No Contest after ‘Bones’ tested positive for PEDs), soon caught wind of Ortiz’ comments and responded with the following derogatory tweet.
No! Lmao https://t.co/rdQVX0T8jM
— Daniel Cormier (@dc_mma) July 17, 2019
“No! Lmao,” Cormier posted on Wednesday.
Cormier, the reigning UFC heavyweight champ, is expected to defend his title against Stipe Miocic in a championship rematch next month. The highly anticipated bout will headline UFC 241 on August 17 at Honda Center in Anaheim, California.