By now, you’ve probably seen the video of UFC light-heavyweight champion Jon Jones getting his left eyebrow stitched up last week, following an apparent training injury. With his UFC 178 title defense against Daniel Cormier just two months away, the release of the clip was an interesting choice, as most fighters tend not to publicly broadcast their physical vulnerabilities before fights.
“I’m gonna take u down and grind my elbow into that cut you got today,” Cormier wrote on Thursday in response. “Put a bullseye on that thing. Some things should remain private.”
So what if I told you that the video was intentionally manipulated, in an attempt to trick Cormier into targeting the wrong eye? This morning, Pedro Ivo Jr. from Portal do Vale Tudo dropped some knowledge on us via email:
Jon Jones manipulated his instagram video about the cut he suffered. You can see clearly that in one moment they are stitching the RIGHT eyebrow…and not the left. Why did he do this? It’s the same eyebrow that Gustafsson opened at [their] fight. He is trying to hide that he opened the same side.. so DC wont notice this!
And yeah, if you watch the video closely, you’ll see that the certificates on the wall behind him are displayed in reverse. Oh snap. I don’t appreciate your ruse, Jon.
By now, you’ve probably seen the video of UFC light-heavyweight champion Jon Jones getting his left eyebrow stitched up last week, following an apparent training injury. With his UFC 178 title defense against Daniel Cormier just two months away, the release of the clip was an interesting choice, as most fighters tend not to publicly broadcast their physical vulnerabilities before fights.
“I’m gonna take u down and grind my elbow into that cut you got today,” Cormier wrote on Thursday in response. “Put a bullseye on that thing. Some things should remain private.”
So what if I told you that the video was intentionally manipulated, in an attempt to trick Cormier into targeting the wrong eye? This morning, Pedro Ivo Jr. from Portal do Vale Tudo dropped some knowledge on us via email:
Jon Jones manipulated his instagram video about the cut he suffered. You can see clearly that in one moment they are stitching the RIGHT eyebrow…and not the left. Why did he do this? It’s the same eyebrow that Gustafsson opened at [their] fight. He is trying to hide that he opened the same side.. so DC wont notice this!
And yeah, if you watch the video closely, you’ll see that the certificates on the wall behind him are displayed in reverse. Oh snap. I don’t appreciate your ruse, Jon.
Shortly afterwards, Jones decided to drop the charade, posting undoctored photos of the injury over his right eye (see here and here), but by then, the story had already been widely reported incorrectly. As of yesterday, Jones was still occasionally pretending that it was his left eyebrow that had suffered the damage, securing his reputation as MMA’s greatest Instagramtroll.
@jonnybones, really sorry for the deep cut I gave you in our last fight. At least you will have a memory from me every time someone opens it up for you. To not make your other eye jealous for not having a cut, I promise to leave a memory on that one as well next time we fight. Now, take care
If only all MMA fighters were this thoughtful and polite.
Daniel Cormier will be stepping into the cage at UFC 178 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas to face off against Jon Jones. Jones is the greatest pound-for-pound fighter the sport has ever seen, Cormier told Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour.&n…
Daniel Cormier will be stepping into the cage at UFC 178 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas to face off against Jon Jones. Jones is the greatest pound-for-pound fighter the sport has ever seen, Cormier told Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour.
Facing off against the greatest fighter ever will be no easy task regardless of Cormier’s pedigree as an amateur wrestler in the Olympics and his impressive accomplishments in MMA. He’ll look to lean on longtime training partners at the American Kickboxing Academy to help prepare him for the biggest challenge of his MMA career.
I tell Jon Jones, show me two guys who can beat my two main training partners, Cain Velasquez and Luke Rockhold. You show me your two who are going to prepare you better than my two. So I’m going to rely on my guys, man. I’m going to rely on Cain, I’m going to rely on Luke to help me become the UFC champion. I’m going to reach out a little bit, but I’m not going to stray very far from my comfort zone.
Even with all of the talent that the American Kickboxing Academy has to offer, Cormier feels it would be in his best interest to seek out talent outside of the San Jose, California, gym—the “former champion” kind of talent.
“I’ve got some friends, and they put me in contact with some of the guys down in Southern California, with Anderson Silva and Lyoto Machida,” Cormier first told Helwani. “I may down go there for a week.”
Long before fans became eager to see Cormier and Jones battle it out, they dreamed of the superfight that should have been—a bout between Silva and Jones that would have the true pound-for-pound king triumph against his greatest challenge.
It never happened.
Then came Machida, the only man before Alexander Gustafsson to challenge Jones inside of the cage (albeit for one round). He was quick enough to get past Jones’ pterodactyl-like reach and connect chin to leather. The champion’s force fields were penetrable, his demise was on the horizon.
That never happened, either.
Cormier steps in at UFC 178 to accomplish both—a superfight between the former Strikeforce heavyweight grand prix champion and the current UFC light heavyweight champion, and the opportunity to get past the reach before knocking the king off his throne.
Whether Cormier will be able to accomplish what is currently known as the impossible has yet to be determined—that reach really is no joke. Let’s just keep our fingers crossed that Cormier’s knee holds up in the weeks before the bout, and Jones does his part in keeping this social media war alive.
Kristian Ibarra is a Featured Columnist at Bleacher Report. He also serves as the sports editor at San Diego State University’s student-run newspaper, The Daily Aztec. Follow him on Twitter at @Kristian_Ibarra for all things MMA.
Daniel Cormier has been gunning for Jon Jones for a long time. Even before the former Olympian ever stepped foot in the light heavyweight division, the Louisiana native made sure to let the pound-for-pound phenom know he was coming for his belt. And it…
Daniel Cormier has been gunning for Jon Jones for a long time. Even before the former Olympian ever stepped foot in the light heavyweight division, the Louisiana native made sure to let the pound-for-pound phenom know he was coming for his belt. And it was a premonition that is about to come true.
While “D.C.” entered the UFC fold as a heavyweight, the AKA staple exited the weight class after a pair of high-profile victories. The 35-year-old defeated former champion Frank Mir and heavy-handed slugger Roy Nelson, respectively, before making the decision to drop down to 205-pounds and make a run at the light heavyweight title. Suddenly, the trash talk Cormier and Jones had been exchanging about a potential showdown clicked up a few notches in the reality department.
Nevertheless, Cormier still needed to make his way up the ladder, and he took solid strides by putting on two dominant performances in his first two showings as a light heavyweight. The Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix winner smashed out short-notice replacement Patrick Cummins at UFC 171 back in February, then followed that performance up by putting a one-sided drubbing on MMA legend Dan Henderson three months later at UFC 173.
The victory over “Hendo” put Cormier within striking distance of a title shot, but the lingering rematch between “Bones” and Alexander Gustafsson seemed to put those hopes on hold. The rangy Swede and the light heavyweight champion put on an “instant classic” at UFC 165 last September, with “The Mauler” taking Jones to the wire in a five-round war. The UFC had committed to making the rematch a reality, and Cormier was content to sit on the sidelines and await his turn.
Yet, mixed martial arts is unpredictable by nature, and on Wednesday afternoon, the opportunity Cormier has been battling toward finally materialized, as Gustafsson was forced to withdraw from his scheduled tilt with Jones at UFC 178 on Sept. 27 due to a torn meniscus, and the undefeated prospect turned title contender was tapped to step in.
Now, the moment Cormier has been working diligently toward has a date set in stone and he couldn’t be happier.
“Initially it was overwhelming,” Cormier told Bleacher Report. “It has been overwhelming this last day-and-a-half, but it has also been a relief. The thing I’ve been working so hard toward is finally here. A lot of people ask for stuff like this and may not be completely or entirely prepared for it. That’s not the case with me because I’ve worked so hard for so long, and this is finally about to happen.
“It’s actually going to happen. We are going to go in there and try to rip each other’s heads off. There has been so much restraint on both of our parts for so long, being around each other, and now we get to get into a cage and beat each other up for 25 minutes. Thanks, Dana White. Thanks, Lorenzo Fertitta. Thank you, UFC, for having this great sport where you get these little, small gloves and you get to go out and try to punch someone in the face.”
While Cormier and Jones have been trading barbs for some time, it didn’t take long for their grudge to escalate on Wednesday. Shortly after their bout was officially announced, Cormier posted a direct message sent to him from Jones on Twitter, complete with his response to Jones’ slight. Not to be outdone, the light heavyweight champion used his daughter to send a video message to the new No. 1 contender that quickly made its way around the MMA community.
(Note: The following tweet NSFW.)
For his part, Cormier welcomes all the banter and jabs Jones wants to fire his way in the pre-fight buildup because he knows they will get to settle their business man to man at UFC 178. Cormier believes MMA offers the ultimate resolution to any grudge or beef and is thankful he will get the opportunity to square off with Jones in Las Vegas.
“It’s awesome,” Cormier said. “We can tweet and have our children say stuff on the Internet as much as we want. But on September 27, Jon Jones is going to walk into that cage and they are going to close the door behind him. The only people in there are going to be me and him. There will be no Greg Jackson or Mike Winkeljohn. There will be no Bob Cook or Javier Mendez. It’s going to be me and Jon with those guys outside of the cage. But inside the cage it will be me and Jon duking it out like men. I cannot wait.”
While the road to the light heavyweight title showdown will undoubtedly be a high-profile affair, Cormier‘s focus is locked on achieving his ultimate goal of winning a UFC title. Throughout his athletic career, the Lafayette, Louisiana native has consistently pushed, scrapped and sacrificed to make his way to the top of whatever ladder he was climbing, and while he was certainly successful in many aspects, ascending the summit was something he was never able to do.
Nevertheless, Cormier‘s spirit is not one easily broken. He’s been forced to overcome personal tragedy and athletic setbacks along his journey, and while those experiences certainly took pieces of him, he never allowed the hard times to shatter his spirit. Those tragedies and missteps tested his heart and soul as both a man and a competitor, and he has fired back from the shadows of those times with ferocity to reach the doorstep of what he believes would be his greatest achievement.
Every step on the road to UFC 178 prepared him for what is to come, and Cormier is determined to turn all the hard work into 12 pounds of gold on Sept. 27.
“I’ve been so close throughout my entire athletic career,” Cormier said. “High school nationals very close. NCAA tournament very close. Olympics very close. World Championships very close. Everything I’ve ever done competitively, I’ve always been very close but never quite got it done. Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix prepared me. I know how win the big one now and now I get to tie it all together. All of those experiences I get to tie into doing something a lot of people think can’t be done and that’s beat Jon Jones.
“I’ve had to deal with a lot of stuff. From losing a kid to losing my dad on a holiday to the Olympic games. I’ve had to deal with a lot of stuff, and when you go through life as I have, you don’t fear anything. I don’t fear a spinning elbow. I don’t fear a spinning back kick. I don’t fear getting elbowed if he takes me down. That doesn’t scare me. What scares me is not having Selena, my kids and my family. That is the stuff that scares me, but those are also the things that drive me.
“I want to make sure they have a life that is secure and comfortable. I don’t want to deal with any of the things I dealt with before. That stuff sucked. When it comes to heart, I saw in the Gustafsson fight that Jon Jones has a ton of it. But life has taught me that I can get through just about anything.
“It feels unbelievable to know that on September 27, I get the chance to compete for the biggest prize in all of mixed martial arts,” he added. “It’s also great to know that on September 28, I’m going to board a plane from Las Vegas with my family, who I will be sharing the UFC title with.”
Duane Finley is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report. All quotes are obtained firsthand unless noted otherwise.
Alexander Gustafsson’s goals haven’t changed, despite suffering a torn meniscus in training camp. He still plans on winning the UFC title and becoming the first man to defeat Jon Jones.
“I really want to fight him,” Gustafsson s…
Alexander Gustafsson’s goals haven’t changed, despite suffering a torn meniscus in training camp. He still plans on winning the UFC title and becoming the first man to defeat Jon Jones.
“I really want to fight him,” Gustafsson said during an interview with UFC.com.
The two light heavyweight stars shared the spotlight nearly a year ago at UFC 165, where Jones eked out a decision. With some calling it the greatest title fight in UFC history, it only made sense that the UFC would waste little time in putting together the blockbuster rematch.
After winning a fight apiece, Jones and Gustafsson were slated to stand across from each other once again on September 27 in the main event of UFC 178. But an unforeseen injury to Gustafsson’s knee threw a monkey wrench in the UFC’s original plans.
During a sparring session, Gustafsson says that he felt his right knee pop a couple of times. It wasn’t until the next morning that he realized the severity of the injury.
“I was sparring and I felt my knee pop twice, but it didn’t hurt, it just felt strange,” Gustafsson said. “I finished training and came home and then I woke up the next morning and I could barely walk on my right leg. Then I felt the knee right away.”
A trip to the doctor confirmed a torn meniscus in Gustafsson’s knee. The injury will require surgery, and the post-rehab work typically lasts anywhere between five and six weeks, depending on the individual.
While the injury is a disappointing setback, Gustafsson won’t waste his time crying over spilt milk. He thanked all the fans for the unending support and vowed to come back a much stronger fighter.
As for Jones vs. Cormier, Gustafsson sees a highly competitive title fight that will come down to the judges siding with the champ.
“It’s an interesting matchup,” said Gustafsson. “Both are great athletes and it’s going to be a tough fight for sure. But Jones has his height and reach advantage over DC, so I think that will be the key thing in this fight. I think Jones by decision.”
JordyMcElroy is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report. He is also the MMA writer for Rocktagon.
Daniel Cormier has always been the elephant in the room.
Ever since the former Olympic wrestler announced in August 2013 that he’d shed the weight necessary to enter the UFC light heavyweight division, he’s been considered the biggest, most interesting…
Daniel Cormier has always been the elephant in the room.
Ever since the former Olympic wrestler announced in August 2013 that he’d shed the weight necessary to enter the UFC light heavyweight division, he’s been considered the biggest, most interesting threat to champion Jon Jones.
This was the bout everybody wanted—a superfight so hotly anticipated that Cormier already had the T-shirts printed up.
It’s just that nobody thought it would happen this fast, and nobody wanted it to come at the expense of another talented and well-liked fighter.
There were unmistakably mixed emotions Wednesday as the UFC announced on its website that Alexander Gustafsson was injured and out of his Sept. 27 bout against Jones, with Cormier stepping in to replace him. Gustafsson seems like one of the sport’s true good guys, and after he pushed the previously unassailable titlist to the brink last year at UFC 165, their rematch was starred on all our calendars.
It’s one of the great luxuries of being the UFC, though, that the fight company can simultaneously scratch one of the most anticipated fights of 2014 and replace it with an arguably better, more intriguing affair.
With all due reverence to the Swede and his torn meniscus, Cormier has always been the guy we wanted opposite Jones. Given that DC is already 35 years old, this is a fight and a feud best served now, before Father Time or further unforeseen circumstances can spoil it.
Not that it comes without question marks.
In a sport where anything and everything can turn on a dime, there are always extenuating circumstances.
The timing of this fight announcement seemed curious, almost as if it was meant to overshadow fallout from Vitor Belfort and Chael Sonnen appearing in front of the Nevada State Athletic Commission earlier in the day. It felt like kind of a rush job, and there are lingering concerns about the challenger’s health.
In the wake of his UFC 173 victory over Dan Henderson in May, we learned Cormier fought with preexisting injuries to two knee ligaments: the lateral collateral and anterior cruciate, if you’re scoring at home.
On July 5 he competed in an exhibition wrestling match at the UFC 175 Fan Expo (and won), but last we heard he was still scheduled for surgery. Sometime between then and Gustafsson’s knee injury, plans changed. Cormier has now decided to delay medical intervention, either because of the opening at UFC 178 or in anticipation of it:
Here’s hoping he’s as healthy as he claims. Despite the fact Cormier comes in with an unblemished 15-0 record and considerable hype, Jones is still the best fighter in the world at any weight. There’s simply no way Cormier can dethrone the champion if he’s fighting on one leg.
Taking on Jones is tough enough while possessing a full complement of working limbs. It’d be a shame if a fight with so much promise and so much buildup underwhelms because Cormier took it prematurely.
Frankly, it’s too big and too important for that.
Just look at the first 24 hours of build, which have already surpassed anything Jones and Gustafsson managed to create for their rematch in months—and yes, that includes those unfortunate days when people tried to make Jones “ducking” Gustafsson a thing, a notion Bleacher Report’s Jonathan Snowden debunked in March.
Reports that Jones and Cormier nearly brawled outside the 2011 World MMA Awards are now the stuff of legend. In the immediate wake of this week’s booking, the two have already exchanged profane Twitter messages, and Jones got his daughter to go on Instagram and guarantee a victory.
You could say this one is personal.
In a perfect world, Jones and Cormier put on a fight for the ages at UFC 178 and Gustafsson heals in time to meet the winner around Super Bowl weekend 2015. But things are rarely perfect in MMA, and the circumstances surrounding this booking certainly don’t qualify.
Alexander Gustafsson’s unexpected exit from his highly anticipated rematch with Jon Jones at UFC 178 left a huge void in the MMA universe, which was quickly filled with the announcement that Daniel Cormier would be stepping in as a replacement.
I…
Alexander Gustafsson’s unexpected exit from his highly anticipated rematch with Jon Jones at UFC 178 left a huge void in the MMA universe, which was quickly filled with the announcement that Daniel Cormier would be stepping in as a replacement.
It was announced Wednesday that the No. 1 contender from Sweden was forced to withdraw from the title bout after suffering a torn meniscus in his knee during training.
The UFC did not delay its response, keeping the fight card intact by granting a shot to the next man in line. While Jones harbors no hard feelings toward Gustafsson, the bout with Cormier is truly the one he wanted all along. The rematch with Gustafsson was nothing more than a gift to fans still beaming with infatuation over the epic light heavyweight title tilt back in September 2013.
After the fight was announced, Cormier posted a photo on Instagram of a direct message sent to him on Twitter by Jones. Along with revealing his new “Break Bones” T-shirt, the undefeated Olympian had some choice words for the reigning UFC light heavyweight champ (note: NSFW language):
The social media mind games don’t stop there.
Jones responded to Cormier’s comments by posting a video on Instagram of his adorable daughter guaranteeing he was going to beat up DC at UFC 178:
The ever-growing beef between Jones and Cormier should set the stage for perhaps an even more exciting main event than originally planned.
In an interview last year with MMAFighting’s Ariel Helwani, Jones explained that his feud with Cormier stems from an earlier meeting between the two. According to Jones, he didn’t know who Cormier was at the time and joked that he could take down the Olympian in wrestling. It appeared to be a simple case of a personality clash and two men not seeing eye to eye.
Even when Cormier competed at heavyweight, the fighters would trade verbal jabs from time to time, teasing fans with the possibility of a future fight.
The time for teasing has now come to an end. On September 27, Jones and Cormier will finally step into the Octagon to settle things once and for all.
Let the mind games begin.
JordyMcElroy is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report. He is also the MMA writer for Rocktagon.
