Tag: Jon Jones vs Anthony Johnson

Heading into this his light heavyweight championship rematch with Anthony “Rumble” Johnson in the main event of this weekend’s (Sat., April 8, 2017) UFC 210 from the KeyBank Center in Buffalo, New York, 205-pound titleholder Daniel Cormier knows his legacy will rest on his rivalry with troubled-yet-dominant former champ Jon Jones.

Cormier recently admitted as much, and Johnson, the man he submitted to win the belt at UFC 187 in 2015, had a similar stance when he and Cormier appeared on ESPN’s “5ive Rounds’ Podcast earlier this week (via MMA Fighting), believing Jones to “always be around, regardless of what happened.”

That was where Cormier drew the line, however, noting that the fact he failed a drug test only three days before their scheduled rematch at last year’s UFC 200 should not be overlooked just because of how transcendent he was as a fighter:

“You kind of expect it, but there’s only one problem with Anthony’s answer,” Cormier said. “I think we’ve got to stop saying, ‘Regardless of what happened.’ We know what happened. We know exactly what he did. So when we say stuff like, ‘Regardless of what happened,’ or we don’t state the facts, it’s almost like we’re sweeping it under the rug. We know what he did. We know the bad things that he did. We know that he tried to cheat. We know all this stuff. So I get annoyed because I’m like, ‘Why are you asking me about a guy that, three days before we were supposed to fight, pissed hot?’ That’s the stuff that annoys me, not the fact that he’s a good fighter. He’s a great fighter.”

Jones unceremoniously tested positive for banned estrogen blockers heading into his anticipated second fight with Cormier, and the former champion and his team went on to defend their case by claiming sexual performance enhancement drugs were the culprit. There’s a large view that USADA accepted Jones’ defense following an arbitration hearing, but Cormier wanted to clear the air by detailing USADA did not accept his argument, which lead to the full one-year suspension as a sanction:

“He got that year [suspension] from USADA, right?” Cormier said. “He got a year suspension and there’s this misconception that USADA believed his excuse. They did not believe his excuse. They gave him the max amount of time that they could for what he did! The defense that he had didn’t prove anything. USADA gave him the max suspension that they could give him so, to me, he’s a cheater. They didn’t buy that whole — what was it, a fertility pill, or a sex pill? They didn’t buy it because if they bought the explanation, they would not have given him the max amount of time that they could have.”

The post Daniel Cormier Knows ‘Exactly What Jon Jones Did’ appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.

After racking up three straight knockout wins over Jimi Manuwa, Ryan Bader, and Glover Teixeira since losing a title bid versus current champion Daniel Cormier in May 2015, top-ranked UFC light heavyweight Anthony “Rumble” Johnson will finally get another shot at “DC” in the main event of this Saturday’s (April 8, 2017) UFC 210 from the KeyBank Center in Buffalo, New York.

Arguably the most feared striker in all of mixed martial arts (MMA), the dominant “Rumble” has won 12 out of his last 13 bouts and boasts nine T/KO wins during the torrid stretch. However, he was thoroughly dominated by Cormier after the champion was able to survive an early punch to utilize his Olympic wrestling to smother Johnson and win the bout by submission in the third frame.

When Cormier locked in the fight-ending choke, Johnson’s famed striking coach Henri Hooft could be heard yelling, “Don’t give up” in the background, something Cormier said made him certain his biggest victory was almost at hand. But during a recent interview on ESPN’s “Five Rounds” Podcast with Brett Okamoto (via Bloody Elbow), the Dutch kickboxing specialist explained just what he meant when he repeated that phrase. Apparently, he meant it as more of a motivation to not give Cormier a position where he would be dominant:

“Some people say ‘you’re a great coach, but you cannot tell that to your students.’ That’s bulls—t!” Hooft explained. “Because every training, in a scramble when you give the back to somebody, we talk about this ‘don’t give up, scramble! scramble!’ Don’t give up position, and don’t just sit there and wait.’

“He’s going to be strong (in that position) and you’re going to be weaker, so that’s why we try to motivate them to don’t give up,” he said. “He got a little bit crazy in the first round, and he had to survive the second round just to get his second wind. Not ‘giving up’ was not saying he wants to quit in the fight, I don’t think AJ is like that. Otherwise he wouldn’t come up this far — but give up positions, where his opponent is getting stronger.”

Hooft refuted all who believe “Rumble” is a fighter who can be broken mentally, noting that Cormier, who only has a single loss to disgraced all-time great Jon Jones on his record, was the only fighter to beat him in his wildly successful UFC return:

“Probably people think they can break AJ, but it’s kinda funny. The only guy that beat AJ was DC, the rest, AJ knocked everybody out. They’re saying ‘he’s mentally weak, blah blah blah’ but you see what happens (to his opponents). A real fighter doesn’t quit in the fight in the sense of ‘I don’t want to do this anymore’, but they give up a position. That’s where it gets wrong, because you give the opponent confidence. That was more of the case of me trying to make him not give up position and to keep going.”

Finally, Hooft clarified his statement by pointing out that with all Johnson’s been through in his up-and-down MMA career, he simply wouldn’t be in the elite position he’s in right now if he was indeed a fighter who packed it in:

“It doesn’t mean quitting the fight. I don’t think a guy like AJ — what he went through with all these weight cuts, with all these problems and everything, he wouldn’t be fighting anymore if he quits.”

“Anthony is not somebody who quits. That’s not the case. Maybe it was just a little misunderstood. People get like crazy about it. C’mon man, be serious.”

The post Coach: Rumble Is Not Somebody Who Quits appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.