Tag: Jon Jones

Daniel Cormier Nearly Walks Out of Podcast After Host Dubs Jon Jones ‘The Michael Jordan of MMA’

Daniel Cormier Nearly Walks Out of Podcast After Host Dubs Jon Jones 'the Michael Jordan of MMA'Daniel Cormier nearly walked out on Kamaru Usman’s Pound 4 Pound podcast after the former welterweight world champion likened…

Daniel Cormier Nearly Walks Out of Podcast After Host Dubs Jon Jones 'the Michael Jordan of MMA'

Daniel Cormier nearly walked out on Kamaru Usman’s Pound 4 Pound podcast after the former welterweight world champion likened Jon Jones to NBA legend Michael Jordan.

It’s no secret that ‘DC’ has a deep hatred for Jones. Their rivalry dates back almost a decade when the Hall of Famers first squared off at UFC 182 for the light heavyweight championship. ‘Bones’ won the bout via unanimous decision, but their iconic rivalry prompted the promotion to book a rematch between the two at UFC 214.

This time around, Jones finished Cormier in the third round, but the result was later overturned after Jones was found to have tested positive for a banned substance.

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Regularly citing Jones’ multiple banned substance violations and his slew of run-ins with the law, Cormier has regularly lobbied against the notion that ‘Bones’ is the undisputed GOAT of mixed martial arts.

So it should come as no surprise that ‘DC’ was ready to get up and walk out on Kamaru Usman after ‘The Nigerian Nightmare’ suggested that Jon Jones is the Michael Jordan of MMA.

Daniel Cormier throws a fit over Jon Jones/Michael Jordan comparison

It all began as Usman started to sing the praises of Jones and likened him to Conor McGregor in that he, like the Irishman, has gotten to a point in his career where he can handpick his opponents. Cormier quickly chimed in, saying:

“I thought you were gonna say Michael Jordan or some crazy sh*t like that. If you would’ve said that I was leaving,”

Things got a little heated between the two when Usman doubled down, suggesting that Jones is an MMA version of the six-time NBA champion.

“To be honest, Jon is in a sense the Michael Jordan that we’ve seen in MMA,” Usman stated.

That pissed Cormier off something terrible. So much so that ‘DC’ threatened to get up and walk out of the interview altogether.

“No he isn’t,” Cormier replied matter-of-factly. “I’m about to leave, are you done with the interview? Do you just wanna be done? So you’re telling me Jon Jones is the Michael Jordan and Lebron James of MMA? You’re gonna sit up here in real life on five cameras (and say that)?”

Daniel Cormier

Jon Jones is scheduled to return to the Octagon on November 16 when the promotion heads back to the world’s most famous arena, Madison Square Garden, for UFC 309. There, ‘Bones’ will put his undisputed heavyweight championship on the line against two-time titleholder Stipe Miocic.

In all likelihood, Daniel Cormier will be on the call that night and get a cageside seat for Jones’ first heavyweight title defense.

Former Opponent Feels LHW Jon Jones Would Fight Tom Aspinall Better Than Heavyweight

After vacating his UFC light heavyweight title, Jon Jones was inactive for three years until he finally came back as a heavyweight. He captured the heavyweight belt by submitting Ciryl Gane at UFC 285, but after suffering a significant injury, the champion has been gone for another long stretch of time. During that time, there […]

Continue Reading Former Opponent Feels LHW Jon Jones Would Fight Tom Aspinall Better Than Heavyweight at MMA News.

After vacating his UFC light heavyweight title, Jon Jones was inactive for three years until he finally came back as a heavyweight.

He captured the heavyweight belt by submitting Ciryl Gane at UFC 285, but after suffering a significant injury, the champion has been gone for another long stretch of time.

During that time, there has been a lot of talk about fans wanting him to fight the interim champion Tom Aspinall, who many believe is the present and future of the weight class.

It looks far more likely that Jones will retire without facing Aspinall, after he meets Stipe Miocic in the main event of UFC 309 in November.

Daniel Cormier Says Jon Jones Would Fight Better Against Tom Aspinall If He Weighed Less

During his appearance on the Pound 4 Pound podcast, Daniel Cormier spoke about how Jones matches up with Aspinall.

Having faced “Bones” on two occasions, “DC” said that he thinks whilst Jones’ experience is an advantage, he’s been through a lot of gruelling fights during his career.

Cormier also said that another factor that makes him seriously consider whether Aspinall could be the first guy to beat the UFC heavyweight champion is the fact that Jones isn’t naturally suited to that weight class.

He spent a lot of time building himself up to that frame but as a result, will sacrifice the speed that he had at light heavyweight.

That makes Cormier believe that the heavyweight champ would fair better against a big, powerful and fast knockout artist like Aspinall if he was fighting at a smaller weight.

“All those guys that fought him [Jones] close, that takes its toll. I think that this kid [Aspinall] is as dangerous for him as anyone he’s ever been in there with. Partly because that’s not his weight class. If he’s at 205, I bet if he’s weighing 215 [pounds], he would fight Tom Aspinall better than him weighing 245-pounds. 220 in his 205 frame, he could fight Tom Aspinall better then he’d fight him at 250 because while he didn’t last long with Ciryl, he didn’t look as fast.”

Read also: MMA Analyst Explains Why He Doesn’t Consider Jon Jones A ‘Great Champion’

Continue Reading Former Opponent Feels LHW Jon Jones Would Fight Tom Aspinall Better Than Heavyweight at MMA News.

MMA Analyst Explains Why He Doesn’t Consider Jon Jones A ‘Great Champion’

Jon Jones is undeniably a cornerstone in the debate over who holds the title of the greatest MMA fighter of all time. His skills, beyond doubt, reinforce this assertion, showcasing a career marked by unparalleled success and accomplishments. “Bones” etched his name in the history books by becoming the youngest champion in UFC history at […]

Continue Reading MMA Analyst Explains Why He Doesn’t Consider Jon Jones A ‘Great Champion’ at MMA News.

Jon Jones is undeniably a cornerstone in the debate over who holds the title of the greatest MMA fighter of all time. His skills, beyond doubt, reinforce this assertion, showcasing a career marked by unparalleled success and accomplishments.

“Bones” etched his name in the history books by becoming the youngest champion in UFC history at just 23 years old, triumphing over Mauricio Rua at UFC 128 in March 2011.

Jones remained unbeaten during his reign as the UFC light heavyweight champion, successfully defending his title a staggering 13 times against the very best that the 205-pound division had to offer.

Despite his remarkable achievements, the 37-year-old New Yorker’s career has been marred by several notorious controversies that may overshadow his legacy. This, in fact, is the reason why Josh Thomson does not view “Bones” as a great champion in UFC history.

Thomson Says Jones’ Positive PED Results Mar His Reputation

During a recent episode of the WEIGHING IN podcast, “The Punk” and “Big” John McCarthy delved into the discussion surrounding the longest title defense streak in UFC history and pondered who truly deserves to be called a great champion.

The former UFC referee highlighted Jones’ name in the conversation, but Thomson challenged this notion, asserting that “Bones” testing positive for performance-enhancing drugs undermines his status as the most dominant champion in the sport’s history.

“What defines a great UFC champion is to never have tested positive for a f**king steroid or for a d*ck pill or for anything,” Thomson said. “So automatically, that’s going to exclude two guys that I hold in very high regard, despite one of them not liking my teammates, which is Jon Jones and Anderson Silva. I’m sorry, but that’s something—let’s not p*ssyfoot around this whole thing.”

Jones faced a one-year suspension in 2016 after failing a drug test for androgen-related substances prior to his highly anticipated UFC 200 matchup with Daniel Cormier. Later, “Bones” tested positive for turinabol, resulting in his victory over Cormier at UFC 214 being changed to a no-contest.

Thomson went on to emphasize that he regards former champions such as Demetrious Johnson, who boasts 11 title defenses, and Georges St-Pierre, with nine defenses to his name, as the greatest titleholders in UFC history.

Jones is preparing for his highly anticipated return to the Octagon after more than a year away, following his triumphant victory over Ciryl Gane at UFC 285 in March 2023, where he captured the undisputed heavyweight title.

He is scheduled to defend his championship against former titleholder Stipe Miocic in the main event of UFC 309 on November 16, 2024, at the Madison Square Garden in New York City.

Continue Reading MMA Analyst Explains Why He Doesn’t Consider Jon Jones A ‘Great Champion’ at MMA News.

UFC Hall of Famer Believes the Promotion’s Lack of Star Power is Due to Shorter Championship Reigns

UFC Hall of Famer Daniel Cormier Explains What Makes a Truly 'Great Championship Reign' TodayLengthy UFC title reigns seem to be a thing of the past. It doesn’t feel like it was that…

UFC Hall of Famer Daniel Cormier Explains What Makes a Truly 'Great Championship Reign' Today

Lengthy UFC title reigns seem to be a thing of the past.

It doesn’t feel like it was that long ago that we all sat in front of our TVs on Saturday nights and marveled at the dominance of UFC champions like Anderson Silva, Georges St-Pierre, and Demetrious Johnson, all of whom carried their respective titles for a combined 6,663 days.

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Other fighters such as Jose Aldo and Jon Jones have had undeniably impressive title runs with ‘Junior’ defending the featherweight title seven times and ‘Bones’ notching 11 total defenses across two different reigns as the UFC light heavyweight champion.

UFC

With championship reigns seemingly getting shorter and shorter, Cormier believes that could offer an explanation as to why the UFC is sorely lacking star power these days. ‘DC’ also offered his take on how many defenses a fighter needs in this day in age before reaching that coveted Hall of Fame status.

“I think the reason we don’t have that star, is it’s hard to be a long-reigning champion,” Cormier said on a recent episode of Good Guy/Bad Guy with Chael Sonnen. “That’s the problem. The game has gotten so hard now, that Anderson [Silva] had what, 11 title defenses? Jon Jones had 13? Who is doing that anymore? We talked bout Sean O’Malley as if he had a great title reign, but he defended the belt one time. Imagine if he did it seven times…

“A long title reign is very difficult. It’s what’s needed to become a real draw. You cannot just be a flash-in-the-pan champion. Unfortunately, [Israel Adesanya] was a draw because he held that belt for a long time, but since he lost the belt, the number isn’t as great…the reigns aren’t as long [now]. I was talking to some of the guys on the weigh-in show… what would you consider a great championship reign today? For me right now, I think defending that belt three times. Winning the title, defending it three times, I think it gets you in the Hall of Fame because it’s so hard to hold on to the belt today” (h/t BJPenn.com).

Valentina Shevchenko, Kamaru Usman, and Amanda Nunes have the most dominant UFC title reigns in recent years

Nowadays, a reign like the ones that Silva, GSP, and ‘Mighty Mouse’ had just don’t seem to exist. The closest we’ve gotten to it thus far has been Valentina Shevchenko who defended the women’s flyweight title seven times before surrendering the belt to Alexa Grasso in March 2023.

Since then, ‘Bullet’ has regained the title and will look to resume her dominance over the division in 2025.

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The next closest thing to her impressive run was Kamaru Usman’s successful defense of the welterweight title five times in less than two years, though four of those five fights came against Colby Covington and Jorge Masvidal.

Israel Adesanya and Amanda Nunes also defended their middleweight and bantamweight titles five times apiece.

‘The Last Stylebender’ ultimately surrendered his belt to Alex Pereira in late 2022 before taking it back five months later while Nunes opted to lay down her gold and retire last year following a dominant performance against Irene Aldana at UFC 289.

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Daniel Cormier Believes Only Two Current UFC Champs Can Sell Pay-Per-Views: ‘Void Of That Big Star?’

A lot has changed in the last couple of years for the UFC. The roster features many new exciting talents, but dominant champs like Israel Adesanya, Alexander Volkanovski, and Kamaru Usman also lost their belts. In its different eras, the UFC has benefited heavily from megastars like Chuck Liddell, Conor McGregor, and Ronda Rousey. However, […]

Continue Reading Daniel Cormier Believes Only Two Current UFC Champs Can Sell Pay-Per-Views: ‘Void Of That Big Star?’ at MMA News.

A lot has changed in the last couple of years for the UFC. The roster features many new exciting talents, but dominant champs like Israel Adesanya, Alexander Volkanovski, and Kamaru Usman also lost their belts.

In its different eras, the UFC has benefited heavily from megastars like Chuck Liddell, Conor McGregor, and Ronda Rousey. However, it looks like the company now wants its brand to reign supreme. If people trust the UFC to be the premier MMA organization in the world, they won’t evaluate the quality of the card based on the stars it has.

Having said that, popular fighters are still a boon, if not a necessity, for the UFC. According to Daniel Cormier, the promotion currently lacks champions that can sell pay-per-views like their predecessors…

Daniel Cormier Explains Why Islam Makhachev, Belal Muhammad, Ilia Topuria, Merab Dvalishvili, And Other UFC Champs Aren’t Stars Yet

On the latest episode of Good Guy / Bad Guy on the ESPN MMA YouTube channel, Cormier and Sonnen discussed the current UFC champs. According to the former UFC heavyweight kingpin, only Jon Jones and Alex Pereira are proven draws for the UFC.

“Is there a void of that big star? Because right now, it feels like only Jon Jones and Pereira, Pereira and Jon Jones might be the only two Champions right now that are completely moving the needle.”

All the other champs in the promotion have either just reached the top or don’t have the most exciting fighting style and mic skills. The iconic duo also talked about how MMA has evolved drastically in recent years, making it unlikely for new champions to beat title defense records set by Jones, Georges St-Pierre, Anderson Silva, Demetrious Johnson, and other greats.

“Jon Jones right now is a proven draw. He will sell pay-per-views. Alex Pereira, under right circumstances, will sell pay-per-views. But then when I list these other names to you, Chael, Zhang Weili, the 25 pound champion is the Brazilian, Pantoja, Merab Dvalishvili, Ilia Topuria, Islam Makhachev, Belal Muhammad. Let’s keep going.”

DC backed his claims by mentioning the not-so-great numbers generated by Makhachev vs. Poirier at UFC 302. He also revealed that Dricus Du Plessis vs. Israel Adesanya did decent, but the number was much lower than what “The Last Stylebender” was bringing in at his peak.

“The problem is the game has gotten so hard now. Anderson had what? 11 title defenses. Jones had like 13. Who’s doing that anymore?”

“Poatan” is 37 and “Bones” might consider retirement after fighting Stipe Miocic at UFC 309. Cormier believes that the UFC has yet to find proper replacements for its biggest stars at the moment which could be detrimental.

Continue Reading Daniel Cormier Believes Only Two Current UFC Champs Can Sell Pay-Per-Views: ‘Void Of That Big Star?’ at MMA News.

‘If Sean O’Malley Had Won…’ – Jon Anik’s Unique Argument To Defend Jon Jones In Pound-For-Pound Rankings

Jon Jones last fought in the UFC in March 2023, when he submitted Ciryl Gane to win the promotion’s heavyweight title. Stipe Miocic was supposed to be his first title defense but a shoulder injury compelled the champion to take time off from training. While Jones has been inactive, Islam Makhachev has defended his UFC […]

Continue Reading ‘If Sean O’Malley Had Won…’ – Jon Anik’s Unique Argument To Defend Jon Jones In Pound-For-Pound Rankings at MMA News.

Jon Jones last fought in the UFC in March 2023, when he submitted Ciryl Gane to win the promotion’s heavyweight title. Stipe Miocic was supposed to be his first title defense but a shoulder injury compelled the champion to take time off from training.

While Jones has been inactive, Islam Makhachev has defended his UFC lightweight title twice and sits comfortably at the top of the company’s pound-for-pound rankings. The community is divided on the matter though, especially after Dana White bluntly dismissed the rankings and called Jones the undisputed pound-for-pound best fighter.

Although Jon Anik believes Makhachev to be the P4P best, he might not be in favor of Jones being excluded from the rankings because of inactivity…

Jon Anik Imagines How Sean O’Malley’s Pound-For-Pound Rank Would’ve Changed Due To Injury Like Jon Jones

Anik recently appeared on the official MMAFightingonSBN YouTube channel to discuss all things UFC. When asked for his two cents on the endless P4P debate, the UFC commentator made a clear distinction between Jones being the greatest fighter of all time and Makhachev being the best skill-to-skill fighter in the world right now.

“jon Jones is the greatest mixed martial arts athlete for me. Pound-for-pound in the world, today, I think it’s pretty consensus that Islam Makhachev is the guy. But yeah, when Jonny Jones is in an active competition cycle and given body of work, yeah, he’s the guy. But right now, Islam for me, is you know, skill-for-skill, and given activity, number one.”

Anik was then informed about MMA Fighting’s criteria for removing fighters who haven’t competed in over 18 months from the P4P list. As a result, Jones is not even in their top 20 men’s pound-for-pound fighters, let alone fighting for the top spots.

This is when one of UFC’s most familiar play-by-play voices brought up Sean O’Malley, who’ll be out of action because of requiring hip surgery. While not targeting MMA Fighting specifically, he suggested that it would’ve been interesting how MMA media would’ve handled O’Malley’s pound-for-pound rank had he beaten Merab Dvalishvili at UFC 306 and then taken a year or more to recover from the hip injury as the active champ.

Anik also pointed out that the UFC bantamweight division is stacked with talented contenders, which would’ve made O’Malley’s case even more intriguing.

“It really would’ve been interesting if Sean O’Malley had won and had to get his hip prepared, you know. And you don’t see him for a year, you know, because there’s so many 35ers but there’s a new world order and it’s Merab Dvalishvili. You know, and, exciting times buddy.”

Continue Reading ‘If Sean O’Malley Had Won…’ – Jon Anik’s Unique Argument To Defend Jon Jones In Pound-For-Pound Rankings at MMA News.