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UFC heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier’s final fight before retiring was supposed to be rather cut-and-dry. “DC” was slated to face former champion Brock Lesnar in early 2019 before heading off into the sunset as he hit 40 years old.

But after Cormier recently admitted the Lesnar fight was still ‘up in the air’ heading into 2019, the pound-for-pound king’s future is now much more uncertain. Obviously, there’s a long-rumored trilogy grudge match with Jon Jones. ‘Bones’ recently regained his light heavyweight title by smashing Alexander Gustafsson at last weekend’s UFC 232. However, Jones isn’t too enthusiastic about moving up to heavyweight to challenge ‘DC.’

Persuaded?

That leaves their trilogy fight extremely unknown. Cormier may not be prepared to cut all the way back down to 205, as his last two cuts down to light heavyweight were clearly draining. If he fights Lesnar and is done, no one would blame him for cashing out when he’s ahead. UFC President Dana White loves ‘DC,’ and wants him to fight up to three more times. Cormier’s AKA coach Javier Mendez told MMA Fighting that White can be very persuasive. So much so, he may be able to talk Cormier into more fights:

“If Dana had his way, there’d be three left. And you know what, Dana has a pretty good way of persuading people. I like Dana, so I don’t know — we may see two or three [more fights]. I don’t know, I think so, I think Dana has a way of making things good for DC and making it right, so yeah, possibly, I wouldn’t be surprised.”

Sticking By His Man

Mendez is willing to accept whatever Cormier wants, as ‘DC’ is an exemplary member of his team and a decorated captain. If the once-champ-champ wants to be done after one more fight, so be it. If he wants to fight 10 more times, Mendez will be right there as well:

“For me, I love DC so much, that if DC says tomorrow, ‘Jav, I’m done,’ then I’m going to encourage him to be done. But if he says, ‘Jav, I want to fight again,’ then I’m going to be onboard with him,” Mendez said. “I’m with whatever DC wants. I love that guy so much, he’s such a great team captain and a great individual and a great friend. He’s not endangering his health, so for me, whatever he wants, I’m going to be onboard.

“So if he tells me tomorrow, ‘I’m done,’ then I’ll tell you he’s done, but if he says, ‘I’m going to fight 10 more fights, Jav,’ let’s fight 10 more fights. This is DC’s train. I’m onboard, and I’m glad to be onboard, and I’ll ride it until he doesn’t want to be onboard.”

Stay At Heavyweight?

If he does end up fighting Jones, Mendez would prefer it be at heavyweight. That may not be possible considering Jones now has the 205-pound title and doesn’t want to move up anytime soon. In that case, Mendez knows the competitor in ‘DC’ would most likely commit to the cut:

“Would I rather have him at heavyweight, yeah,” Mendez said. “But knowing DC, the competitor that he is, he lost to [Jones] as a light heavyweight — I wouldn’t be surprised if DC says [a potential third fight is at] light heavyweight. But me personally, if he asks my advice, I’m gonna say if you’re gonna fight the guy, then I would like it at heavyweight.”

Other Ventures

At the end of the day, his longtime coach would prefer he just fight Lesnar and move on to his many outside-the-cage ventures. Cormier is a decorated TV analyst for the UFC and also coaches wrestling.

Due to all of his other pursuits, Mendez claims Cormier doesn’t need to fight:

“But really, like I said, for me, I only want him to fight Brock, one fight, call it quits. He’s such an incredible coach, he’s an incredible analyst. Man, that guy is just made for TV. So, to me, he doesn’t need fighting. He doesn’t need it. So for me, I’m with whatever he wants to do, but if I had a choice I would say fight Brock and then call it quits. Don’t fight anybody else. You don’t need to, you don’t need to. Move on, do some other great things, be involved with your son, watch him grow, watch him mature, watch him do their things like you always wanted to do.”

No matter what his. next move may be, Cormier will go down as one of the best fighters in MMA history. If he retires before facing Jones a third time, many will point to the fact that he never beat “Bones” as the only thing holding him back. He and his team know that isn’t the case, and his many fans do too.

Despite that, Cormier’s rep as a fierce competitor will more likely persuade him to face Jones a third time before he retires. If and when he does, one of the UFC’s biggest-ever fights will be at hand.

The post Coach: Dana Could Persuade Daniel Cormier Into Three More Fights appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.

Former UFC light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier took the initiative by relinquishing the UFC 205-pound title before the promotion could strip him of it yesterday.

Talk of a trilogy fight featuring the heavyweight champion against Jon Jones is swirling ahead of Jones’ return against Alexander Gustafsson at tonight’s UFC 232. Many believe it will happen at heavyweight if it does happen. However, “Bones” was quick to shut that down on the UFC 232 weigh-in show on FOX Sports 1 (via MMA Fighting) last night.

“Nah, no. He looks good at heavyweight. He’s designed to be a heavyweight. He’s comfortable there. He naturally goes to heavyweight between every fight. That is his spot, and like I said, he makes a great heavyweight champion. Even before fighting me, he was on a tear at heavyweight. That’s his zone. I have no reason to challenge him at heavyweight, because for me it’s not personal.”

It’s easy to see why Jones would only want to fight Cormier at light heavyweight. He’s beaten him there twice and has ruled over the division for the better part of the last seven years. The only thing standing in Jones’ way of complete dominance, obviously, are his drug-fueled outside-the-cage troubles.

Regardless, Cormier clearly hates Jones and their rivalry is one of the most heated the sport has ever seen. But the feeling isn’t mutual for Jones; at least not until “DC” decides to cut back down to 205 pounds – if he ever does:

“When he comes down to light heavyweight, it’ll be personal again. And he can have what he has, I’ll have what I have, and that’s being the most dominant light heavyweight champion, the only light heavyweight champion since 2011.”

As for all the issues surrounding Jones concerning his drug test trouble, the former champion said he’s not concerned. He’s being tested by USADA and VADA now and feels that he’ll one day be vindicated. He also took a polygraph test to presumably prove his innocence, and stands by that to this day:

“I’m not really worried about all the drug testing stuff,” Jones said. “I’m really excited to have USADA and VADA drug testing me, and at the end of the day, you can ignore facts if you want, but I feel like I will be vindicated at the end of this thing. I really do. I’ve taken a polygraph test and I said that I’ve never intentionally cheated at this sport. I will stand by that. I passed that polygraph test, I believe through time we’ll all get our heads around what this is exactly.”

Complete vindication will be tough to obtain, however, and Jones acknowledged that recently. He can regain his belt by defeating his other rival Gustafsson in California tonight, yet regaining the fans’ trust is going to be an ongoing process that involves much more than one fight.

The post Jon Jones Reveals Why He’ll Never Fight Daniel Cormier At Heavyweight appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.

Jon Jones has been through ups and downs like no other mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter before him. Because of his controversial happenings, he believes it’s next to impossible to prove his innocence.

USADA maintains that Jones is innocent of his most recent drug-related issue. He tested positive for a small amount of turinabol, the anabolic steroid for which he’s just now coming off a 15-month suspension for. However, the UFC’s anti-doping partner insisted the ‘atypical finding’ was due to residual amounts and not new use. Despite them not sanctioning Jones, the NSAC would not license him for his UFC 232 return against Alexander Gustafsson.

The CSAC did, however, and UFC 232 will now go down this Saturday from The Forum in Inglewood, California. Jones spent a small amount of time apologizing to fans and fighters for the confusion but is now shifting his focus back to regaining his title. He believes he can’t really prove his innocence anyway, because his past transgressions continue to follow him around. “Bones” told ESPN he doesn’t have time to change people’s minds on short notice:

“I think my trying to prove any type of innocence is going to be virtually impossible before the fight, because of the controversial image I have. People are kind of set in what they’re going to believe. I can’t win over many minds before the fight.”

Scicentists Don’t Know

Jones may be right about that, at least in some sense. But his past incidents involving both performance-enhancing and recreational drugs give him an extremely short leash in the eyes of most, and that’s something he has to live with. His current situation is a strange one, one that he claims even scientists don’t know much about. With that said, he maintained that he never knowingly put turinabol in his system:

“Even the scientists that found it, don’t know much about it,” said Jones, on the metabolite in his system. “I’m hearing reports this s— could live in my system for seven years. I’ve learned to say, ‘You know what Jon? You know in your heart you did nothing wrong.’ If I took another polygraph test and answered the question, ‘Have you ever knowingly put this in your system?’ I could confidently say, ‘No, I never knowingly put this in my system.’ And it would be a true statement.”

So due to public opinion, Jones believes he’s now the victim of ‘ignorance’ and fans who don’t do their homework in researching his situation. He claims he has to ‘surrender to all that ignorance and remain confident in knowing he did nothing wrong:

“I just have to surrender to people’s opinions, I gotta surrender to the ignorance our sport is surrounded by. I gotta surrender to the fact most people will never pick up a book and do homework for themselves, I gotta surrender to it all and say, ‘Listen Jon, you’ve had a controversial career. You’re fun for people to pick at. You’re fun for people to talk about. If you are part of anything that’s not positive, it’s going to be huge news.’

“I have to be 100 percent confident in knowing I didn’t do anything wrong.”

Ignorant Or Realistic?

Perhaps Jones did nothing wrong in this instance. But he’s right in stating that he will always be pre-judged when anything involving drugs come up. To assume people will go to great lengths to find out if he’s innocent would be quite the foolhardy errand at this point.

His latest comeback is set to go down in two days despite another PED-related controversy, and all he can do to prove his doubters wrong is stay clean and fight consistently. Fans’ doubts that he can may be rooted in ‘ignorance’ in his mind, but the fact remains he hasn’t been a model of consistency over the past four years. Quite the opposite, in fact.

The post Jon Jones: Proving My Innocence Is ‘Virtually Impossible’ appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.

Somehow, this weekend’s UFC 232 has been moved from Las Vegas to California in a move never quite seen before in MMA. It’s time Joe Rogan sounds off on the confusion.

Jones tested positive for a residual amount of turinabol, the same steroid he was suspended for after he beat Daniel Cormier last year. But the UFC’s anti-doping partner USADA decided that Jones had not done anything that required sanctioning. His latest comeback was still going to happen on December 29. But the often-lenient Nevada State Athletic Commission decided they didn’t have the time to evaluate the situation.

CSAC Approves

The California State Athletic Commission and their Jones-defending executive director Andy Foster would, however. It should be noted they did ask for a ‘surprise drug test’ from Jones that he passed. The CSAC again asked if Jones would enroll in Voluntary Anti-Doping Agency testing. He had previously turned down their request as part of his recent re-licensing in California yet joined the second time.

So the fight will somehow go on, but UFC commentator Joe Rogan firmly insisted Jones should just fight in Nevada on a recent episode of ‘The Joe Rogan Experience’ (via MMAjunkie). To him, letting him fight in one state but not another is not the smartest:

“What the (expletive) are you doing? You’re going to let him fight in California? Let him (expletive) fight in Nevada,” Rogan said on his podcast, “The Joe Rogan Experience.” “It’s stupid. It’s stupidity. In this case, it’s stupid. I’m upset. I just wanted this fight to take place without any bull(expletive) behind it. I just want it to be a great fight. It’s an amazing matchup.”

NSAC Could Figure It Out

Rogan then blasted the NSAC for simply not making it happen. Jones’ latest drug-relate case should be proven to be from old use, Rogan claimed:

“I don’t understand why they couldn’t just do this in Nevada. I guess they’re on vacation or some (expletive). That’s crazy. Figure it out. Let’s make a phone call. Isn’t there one person? One person should say, ‘OK, is it, to the best of your knowledge, absolutely from the original test?’ ‘Yes sir, by all the science, we’ll submit the science, show you the science, tell you the number.’ ‘OK, let him fight.’”

Proven?

In terms of Foster, who has been at the forefront of some major groundbreaking discussions like weight-cutting, Rogan praised his efforts.

Jones’ has had perhaps no more staunch supporter than Foster, who’s insisted ‘Bones’ was a victim of the USADA system this time around. So due to the scientific findings in place, Rogan trusts Foster and also Jeff Novitzky if they claim the ‘atypical result’ was the thing he was already punished for:

“Andy Foster – I have a great deal of respect for that guy,” Rogan said. “Very proactive with weight-cutting, very proactive with weight classes, very proactive with a lot of the rules. He’s really good. If he believes this is scientifically proven to be the same exact thing that he’s already been punished for, I agree with him. That guy knows what the (expletive) he’s talking about. Same with (Jeff) Novitzky, same with all the other people saying it’s legit.”

The post Joe Rogan Sounds Off On Jon Jones’ UFC 232 Drug Test Issue appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.

It’s hardly a secret that the talented-but-troubled Jon Jones has a documented history with failed USADA drug tests. You may be a bit surprised, however, to learn that Jones considered leaving MMA forever after his most recent drug suspension due to steroids.

Jones was recently reinstated by the CSAC. The controversial former champ paid a fine and agreed to community service. Jones ultimately received a 15-month ban from USADA after testing positive for anabolic steroid Turinabol during his UFC 214 victory over hated rival Daniel Cormier.

What ‘Bones’ didn’t do was agree to the commission’s request for VADA testing. One of MMA’s most notorious names also recently ramped up his online smack talk against Cormier. Jones will now take on Alexander Gustafsson in the main event of December 29’s UFC 232 and could be champ once again. That’s a far cry from where he was during his latest suspension.

Jones told Sports Illustrated that he considered quitting mixed martial arts forever when he was facing a four-year suspension:

“I considered it. I considered it for a while when the allegation first happened. I realized I was facing four years, possibly not getting back for four years. I considered the idea of just saying forget it. Maybe doing real estate or get in to something else.”

Greatest?

But it was a conversation with someone who asked him if he had actually used steroids. He claimed he did not, so he had to fight to get back to fighting, no matter what that meant:

“I had someone ask, “Jon did you take steroids? Like seriously did you take steroids? And now’s the time you can be real with me. And I said, “No, I didn’t.”

“Well, then why are you hanging your head and thinking about hanging the gloves? You were the greatest fighter ever. If you didn’t do steroids then why are you walking around with so much shame? And sadness? He said, get back on your horse.

“No matter how long it takes. If you have to start fighting in Russia or whatever, China, to get back to being where you want to be, you gotta do it. You just gotta take the long road now. And I said fuck it and made a decision to take the long road, and it is funny how once I accepted that, everything came back.”

New Identity

The greatest-yet-most-troubled UFC champ ever then admitted he had fallen into deep depression when he no longer had the belt:

“Without the identity of being light heavyweight champion it was just extremely depressing for a while. Really depressing. I had to learn the value of just being Jon Jones. No matter what happens to me at work, it is a very small part of what my life is.”

However, Jones apparently overcame that hurdle and is looking forward to a bright future. He’s looking to prove he doesn’t need steroids and to silence his doubters:

“I’m in an interesting position. I knocked out Daniel Cormier in my last fight. A lot of people say I could be the best ever. The reality is that I just got accused of using steroids. This next fight allows me to beat a guy a lot people thinks I lost to. And beat him right after this USADA situation. So I can prove so much at once. Okay, I don’t do steroids. I don’t need steroids. I’m obviously not on steroids now, beating a guy everyone thought beat me before. What’s next? What’s your excuse next? How are you going to stop me?”

His focus shifted to Gustafsson, Jones was ready to avenge the loss while showing he’s clean because of USADA testing:

“A lot of people think he beat me the first time. And then a lot of people think I’ve been cheating to win all this time. Which is weird. So I get to prove that I haven’t been cheating; I don’t need to cheat to win. USADA has been testing. I can close a lot of chapters all at once.”

The post Jon Jones: I Can Prove I Don’t Need Steroids appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.