Daniel Cormier is not willing to let go of his rivalry with Jon Jones just yet.
Former two-time UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones is facing a hefty sanction for his UFC 214 drug test mess. While USADA has not yet made a final decision, “Bones” is looking at a four-year maximum suspension for testing positive for Turinabol, his second PED-related infraction in the UFC.
But if it were up current champion Daniel Cormier, Jones would be getting a lighter punishment.
“For me, personally, I prefer him to get a shorter suspension, so we could fight again,” Cormier said during a FOX Sports pre-UFC 217 media lunch on Friday (via MMA Fighting). “Of course I would fight him again.”
“I just like to fight him. I feel like I get better every time I prepare to fight him.”
Cormier clarified that Volkan Oezdemir is still his first challenger as a reinstated champion. But at the same time, he is not yet ready to move on from his rivalry with Jones, which has been going on since 2014.
“He is the fight,” Cormier said, referring to Oezdemir. “He’s won three fights in a row. I fought Gustafsson before. It was a great fight. Something new, something different. That’s pretty much where it boiled down to.”
“I’m not gonna move on from our rivalry. It was too big. It’s gonna go down in history. I think people are optimistic. They want to believe in the good. When he says stuff like ‘back to work,’ they think maybe it’s not gonna be as long.”