Reigning Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) light heavyweight champion, Jon Jones, can easily make the 205-pound limit and has no real desire to move up in weight unless it’s a money fight “Bones” is confident he can win.
Like a showdown against Brock Lesnar, for example.
But when it comes to a “special athlete” like Daniel Cormier, who Jones believes has the best chance to defeat him, it’s an entirely different story. And he’s not about to give his longtime rival a power and strength advantage by moving to heavyweight.
“I’m a realist,” Jones told Dan Hardy (via MMA Junkie). “Daniel Cormier is a special athlete and anyone can be beat. I think my greatest chance of losing would be to a guy like Daniel Cormier. We’d be giving him a power and strength advantage over me; it just doesn’t make sense.”
I guess UFC President Dana White didn’t get the memo.
“Right now, I make light heavyweight very easily, and it would just make no sense to fight a guy who, I think, technically (is) on your level and to give him a size advantage,” Jones continued. “I’m not doing it. I’m sure my fans don’t like to hear me talk like that, but that’s just me being a realist – and being respectful of Daniel’s abilities.”
That might be the nicest thing Jones has ever said about the UFC 241 headliner after years of back-and-forth trash talk (samples here). “Bones” holds two wins over “DC” in a pair of light heavyweight title defense, though the latter was overturned to a “no contest” following the oft-ridiculed picogram fiasco.
I guess the only place we’ll see a Jones-Cormier trilogy is at towelweight.