(“Short? No cardio? That’s not what your mother said last night.” / Photo via Getty Images)
Over the course of his dominant UFC career, Jon Jones had proven at least two things — he is an amazing fighter, and it isn’t that hard to get under his skin. Although, as Quinton “Rampage” Jackson and Rashad Evans can attest to, simply making Jones feel uncomfortable and irritable doesn’t make much of a difference when it’s time to actually fight him.
Jones is making his next light-heavyweight title defense against Alexander Gustafsson at UFC 165 in September, but the Swede isn’t the guy “Bones” is tired of talking about. That would be heavyweight contender and two-time Olympian Daniel Cormier.
Cormier faces Roy Nelson next in a winner-eats-town bout at UFC 166, but after that, the undersized heavyweight says that he is moving down to Jones’s division and that he plans to get an immediate title shot once he does. No less than UFC President Dana White has all but said the same.
This, combined with the near-constant battle of tweets and words between DC and JJ has apparently tried Jones’s patience a bit too much. Recently, while on the UFC’s “World Tour,” the 205-pound kingpin was asked, for what has to feel like the millionth time, about Cormier challenging him. Jones got downright catty with his response.
Trying out his best high school girl insults, Jones said that Cormier is short, fat, and that he isn’t even popular. “I hate answering questions about him,” Jones said of Cormier.
“I don’t think he wants to work hard. I think he just wants to be famous. You can see it in his physique…He has, like, 20,000 Twitter followers. He has short reach, bad cardio [and] he looked terrible in his last fight. It’s like, I’m not worried about him at all.”
If Jones isn’t worried about a guy who would be the first person he’s ever faced that can take him down, and a man who just four years into his MMA career has already dominated two former heavyweight champions, then he’s lying or delusional. But despite the fact that he and Cormier appear to almost certainly be headed towards one another should they win their next fights, Jones insists that Cormier isn’t relevant to him.
“He’s just not relevant to me,” Jones said. “There’s so many great fighters in the light-heavyweight division. He’s not even top five in his division. I’m not sure if he is.”
Yeah, Jon, he is. Cormier is, at worst, the number three heavyweight in the world right now, despite having the height of a lightweight. And yes, Jon, everyone wants to see the two of you fight.
And for the record, Cormier like, totally has almost 60,000 twitter followers, so there. Faced with Jones’ hissy fit, Cormier decided to take the higher-looking road when he appeared on Fuel TV recently.
“When I heard his quote, it’s like a 16-year old girl,” Cormier said. “Jon Jones, grow up bud. We’re going to fight regardless of how you feel. And when we do and I’m cutting the line and you might as well pull guard because I’m taking you down.”
Who do you got, nation? Jon Jones, fueled by teen-like angst and awkwardness or Cormier with his super-chub Olympic powers and grown ass man strength?