UFC light-heavyweight contender Jon “Bones” Jones showed the rivalry between he and Daniel Cormier is alive and well, taunting the current champion for pulling out of their scheduled bout at UFC 197 on April 23 due to injury.
Jones wished his rival a “healthy recovery” via Twitter, but he couldn’t help but take a shot at Cormier as well, according to MMAFighting.com. He tweeted, “So much for being willing to die,” before quickly deleting it minutes later.
Per the report, the tweet was likely a response to Cormier’s comments during an earlier interview, where he told Jones he was “willing to die” to beat him. Here’s video of the interview, courtesy of MMA Uncensored:
On Saturday, Cormier took to Instagram to announce he wouldn’t be able to defend his title against Jones later this month due to injury, promising fans he would return to the Octagon shortly:
Jones will step into the Octagon for the first time in over a year at UFC 197. His last fight came in January 2015, a unanimous-decision win against the then-undefeated Cormier, per ESPN.com.
Jones was forced to deal with legal problems during his time away from fighting, and those problems surfaced once again earlier this week, as he was arrested and jailed for two days for violating his probation, per MMAFighting.com’s Shaun Al-Shatti.
He was still allowed to fight Cormier later this month at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, but the latter’s injury forced the UFC to look elsewhere.
Per Sky Sports’ Michael Kelleher, Ovince Saint Preux will replace Cormier, with an interim title belt on the line. Saint Preux is currently ranked as the sixth light-heavyweight contender, but one of only two fighters in the top eight that doesn’t have a loss against Jones on his resume, per Kelleher.
Yahoo Sports’ Kevin Iole isn’t a fan of the choice:
While Jones hasn’t fought in over a year, he’s expected to cruise to a win over Saint Preux, opening the door for a rematch with Cormier later this year.
The two took plenty of verbal shots at each other during the buildup for their first fight and even brawled during a pre-fight press conference, showing just how much bad blood there is between both sides, via the UFC’s official YouTube channel:
Jones’ now-deleted tweet won’t help matters, but this rivalry didn’t need any more fuel. Cormier will be eager to avenge the only loss of his career, whether Jones beats Saint Preux or not, and this bout will likely be back on as soon as the champion returns from injury.
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