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Daniel Cormier: Why The Hell Is Jon Jones Still Interim Champ?

Daniel Cormier vs. Jon Jones has been booked four times, but it’s only happened once for a variety of unfortunate set of circumstances or another, many of which have to do with Jones’ sad string of baffling troubles which seem to be building on one another. That’s left current champion Cormier angling for a bout

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That’s left current champion Cormier angling for a bout with Anthony “Rumble” Johnson, the man whom he beat to originally win the the title at UFC 187 after Jones was arrested for fleeing the scene after hitting a 25-year-old pregnant woman and breaking her arm. “Rumble” has since won three straight bouts by dominating knockout, yet UFC President Dana White recently teased a potential fight between him and Jones.

After he was removed from the main event of UFC 200 and temporarily suspended by USADA for testing positive for estrogen blocker clomiphene and aromatase inhibitor Letrozole metabolites, Jones has recently teased he’d be back sooner than later, and rumors have suggested he only got flagged because he was on Cialis. Even if he does get off and is able to fight, however, Cormier doesn’t want to be scheduled to fight Jones.

He told Brian Stann on SiriusXM (via MMA Fighting) that he can’t believe Jones is still the interim champ, and is adamant any Jones vs. Johnson bout should not be for the interim title because he is healthy:

“Now one thing I completely disagree with, completely – and I don’t care who hears it – why in the hell would Jon still be the interim champion? That makes no sense. That makes absolutely no sense. They should not be fighting for an interim championship. That makes no sense at all. I don’t even know why he would still be the interim champion. His ass was disqualified. Take that freakin’ belt off of him. That’s stupid.

“I hope to God Dana misspoke, because that makes absolutely no sense. They aren’t fighting for some interim title if they fight. They can fight in the main event because it’s a big fight but it’s a fun fight. If they fight, they fight to determine the number one contender it’s not some interim championship fight. That makes no sense at all…You’d have an interim champion defending the interim championship while the actual champion is actually still there. That makes no sense whatsoever.”

Hard to argue against the common sense of that statement, but the UFC has already seen one interim title bout take place this year while Conor McGregor was engrossed in his feud with Nate Diaz. Cormier admitted he needed at least 10-12 weeks to prepare for his next fight, so that put any hope for a true light heavyweight title bout in 2016 on hold.

Jones would still most likely be suspended for the rest of the year even if he does get off with the tainted supplement defense, as fighters like Yoel Romero and Tim Means both received six-month sits for the same.

“DC” and “Rumble” have both agreed that Jones should have to work his way back up, but there will always be those who argue Jones never lost the belt and should therefore always have a clear shot at it until he loses. Which side are you on?

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Daniel Cormier: Why The Hell Is Jon Jones Still Interim Champ?

The post Daniel Cormier: Why The Hell Is Jon Jones Still Interim Champ? appeared first on LowKick MMA.

Alexander Gustafsson To Jon Jones: No Immediate Title Shot Upon Return

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yD8_zH3PUfw[/embed]

Alexander Gustafsson spent countless months training for Jon Jones before going 25 minutes with him inside the Octagon.

Gustafsson, who recently defeated Jan Blachowicz, believes that the…

Alexander Gustafsson spent countless months training for Jon Jones before going 25 minutes with him inside the Octagon.

Gustafsson, who recently defeated Jan Blachowicz, believes that the former champion should not receive an immediate shot at the title whenever it is he returns to action. Jones failed a pre-fight drug test earlier this year and was removed from a planned championship match with Daniel Cormier.

“It wouldn’t be fair, giving him a title shot,” Gustafsson said earlier this week on The MMA Hour (thanks to MMAFighting for transcribing). “I’m not saying I’m going to get it. I’m just saying, after everything that happened, it’s not fair to other fighters too, who’ve been working their asses off and they’ve been fighting each other. So, not a title shot right away. Just give him a fun fight first and that’s it.”

Gustafsson, meanwhile, stands at an interesting position in the light heavyweight division. He has lost to Jones, Cormier and top contender Anthony Johnson, but has shined vs. the rest of the division.

“I’m up for suggestions (for my next opponent), so why not?” Gustafsson said. “But let’s see what they say. I’m up for suggestions, so whatever they give me, I’m down with. A second fight with Jones, who knows. It’s going to be good though.”

Daniel Cormier Still Believes Jon Jones Is Best Fighter In MMA History

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sa34mBvVExo[/embed]

Despite not feeling the love for him personally, Daniel Cormier still believes there is nobody better when it comes to the fight game than Jon Jones.

The reigning UFC light heavyweight …

Despite not feeling the love for him personally, Daniel Cormier still believes there is nobody better when it comes to the fight game than Jon Jones.

The reigning UFC light heavyweight champion held a “Q&A” session recently and Champions.co put together the best of the best.

When asked about who the greatest fighter to step foot in the Octagon is, Cormier replied “Jones is undefeated, what he has done in the octagon can’t be argued against, so I’d say him.”

Jones is the only person to defeat Cormier, but he has struggled to stay active due to run-ins with the law and a recent failed drug test.

Cormier was also brutally honest when it came to saying which was tougher: becoming UFC champion or wrestling in the Olympics?

“Olympics 100%,” he said.

Alexander Gustafsson: I Never Lost Motivation

No. 2-ranked UFC light heavyweight contender Alexander “The Mauler” Gustafsson has fought for the UFC 205-pound strap twice, first at UFC at UFC 165 in 2013 against Jon Jones and second at UFC 192 against Daniel Cormier. In both fights, Gustafsson pushed his opponents to their limits, but he ultimately came up short on both

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Prior to his split-decision loss to Cormier, “The Mauler” was steamrolled by No. 1-ranked Anthony Johnson in his home of Sweden which was unsurprisingly a tough loss to swallow. In fact, he was questioning his fighting future in the aftermath of the bout.

After 11 months away from the cage, Gustafsson is scheduled to return against Jan Blachowicz at tomorrow’s (Sat., September 3, 2016) UFC Fight Night 93 from Hamburg, Germany, and he claims that he never lost motivation in his craft:

“I never lost my motivation,” Gustafsson (16-4 MMA, 8-4 UFC) told MMAjunkie on Thursday. “I don’t know why people are telling me that – like, oh, he’s going to quit.

“I just had two losses. I lost my fight just on the finish line with (Cormier). People cry. It’s a good blow, and it hits you hard, and people don’t understand the feeling or the thoughts you have in your mind when you’re training so hard for something and you lose it just on very small details. People don’t understand that.”

While he did admit that his motivation may have received a setback, “The Mauler” confirmed that fighting is his true passion:

“You say stuff, and people (say), ‘Oh, he’s going to quit.’ No,” Gustaffson said. “You don’t get it, man. You haven’t been in those shoes; you have no idea how it feels. So for me, of course, motivation gets a setback. But this is what I love to do.”

Do you expect Gustafsson to bounce back tomorrow?

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UFC Fight Night 93: What’s Troubling Alexander Gustafsson?

This summer has been bittersweet for Canadian music fans. Yes, that’s an odd place to start in discussing a Swedish mixed martial artist, but give it a second.
One of the greatest rock bands the country has known, The Tragically Hip, completed it…

This summer has been bittersweet for Canadian music fans. Yes, that’s an odd place to start in discussing a Swedish mixed martial artist, but give it a second.

One of the greatest rock bands the country has known, The Tragically Hip, completed its final tour after lead singer and Canadian icon Gord Downie was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer earlier in the year.

The band is known for insightful lyrics and songs that center around social issues, history and other ideas that are not always a first focus for musicians. One such song, Gus: The Polar Bear From Central Park, is an ode to a bear living in captivity and a commentary on the concerns such treatment of animals creates.

“What’s troubling Gus?” Downie crows repeatedly, offering interruptions of constant conversations, lack of fear the bear instills in people as he’s held captive, or the struggle he has between his new life and his biological urge to hunt and kill as possible sources along the way.

It’s perhaps a little corny and may not be a story that everyone is interested in, but it’s a lyric that sticks with anyone who hears it.

Now in 2016, 12 years after that lyric was first heard and three years after Gus the Polar Bear passed away at the Central Park Zoo, MMA fans have reason to revive it because Alexander Gustafsson has been troubled in his own way, and everyone is wondering what the cause might be.

Since his epic title war with Jon Jones at UFC 165, Gustafsson has only fought three times. He holds a win over an overmatched Jimi Manuwa and a pair of losses—one in devastating fashion to Anthony Johnson, another in a title fight with Daniel Cormier that he was inexplicably gifted after losing to Johnson.

He’s fought well at times, if unspectacularly, producing his best work in the Cormier fight while remaining unable to get over the hump and become champion. This weekend he’ll throw hands in Germany on a Fight Pass card that most people forgot was even happening, and many more probably didn’t even know he was scheduled for.

It’s a significant drop in status for Sweden’s top MMA product, who should be entering his prime and finding more success with his rangy boxing and vastly improved wrestling. He isn’t though, instead alternating between big fights with bad results and beating up veritable scrubs just to keep his name out there to some extent.

So what’s troubling Gus?

Probably a few things, actually.

The Jones fight was among the wildest tilts the sport has ever seen, and it’s not outrageous to suggest Gustafsson may have needed the better part of a year just to get himself right afterwards. It happens routinely to athletes that they need a long recovery after a fight takes a part of them—Rory MacDonald in his loss to Robbie Lawler and Carlos Condit in his are good recent examples of the trend.

The Johnson loss happened in Sweden at the second stadium show the UFC had ever done, where 40,000 of Gustafsson’s countrymen saw him get totally romped after he was positioned as a conquering hero returning home. It was bad enough that he openly considered retirement afterwards, which says it all.

The Cormier fight was somewhere in between, and though the shot itself wasn’t deserved on merit, Gustafsson showed up and fought like a man possessed when he got it. It wasn’t the chaotic brawl that the Jones bout was, and the loss wasn’t as explosive as the Johnson outcome, but it was still the exact type of occurrence that could make a man wonder if he’s still cut out for his chosen line of work.

Now with these troubles having spanned across three years, Gustafsson will look to get on some sort of permanent track back to relevance when he meets unranked Jan Blachowicz. He’s a talented man who’s run afoul of some more talented men in recent fights, and it’s left him treading water as something of a forgotten contender as a result.

So the answer to what’s troubling Gus? Well it just so happens that the answer applied to both the polar bear and the mixed martial artist. Says Downie:

Is that what’s troubling you, Gus? The mere mention of the name
Used to be enough to make every bird stop singing.
Is that what’s troubling you, Gus? No one is afraid.

Gus the Polar Bear is beyond saving, but the right showing from Alexander Gustafsson this weekend will make people afraid once again. That would be a pretty good place for him to start.

Follow me on Twitter @matthewjryder!

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