Daniel Cormier nearly walked out on Kamaru Usman’s Pound 4 Pound podcast after the former welterweight world champion likened…
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.
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.
Kamaru Usman said Jon Jones was the Michael Jordan of MMA, and Daniel Cormier almost ended the interview
"I'm about to leave. You done with the interview?"
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)?”
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.
Conor McGregor compared himself to NBA icon Michael Jordan. There’s no denying that Conor McGregor is the most successful…
Conor McGregor compared himself to NBA icon Michael Jordan.
There’s no denying that Conor McGregor is the most successful athlete in the history of mixed martial arts. Aside from being the promotion’s first-ever simultaneous two-division world champion, he’s also responsible for eight of the 10 highest-grossing pay-per-view events in UFC history.
Apparently, that’s good enough to stand side-by-side with the man who went from being cut by his high school basketball team to becoming the greatest player (sorry LeBron) the game has ever seen.
Recently, the popular X account @HoopsMixOnly posted a clip of ‘Air’ Jordan doing ‘Air’ Jordan things. Sharing the video, McGregor compared himself to the six-time NBA champion.
Unless you’ve hit moves they’ve never seen before you are in no talks. I’ve done it multiple times! Respect to Jordan. BIG GOAT TALK. #FreetheMachttps://t.co/fbIeMiX7iF
“Unless you’ve hit moves they’ve never seen before you are in no talks,” McGregor wrote. “I’ve done it multiple times! Respect to Jordan. BIG GOAT TALK.”
Conor McGregor and Michael Jordan May Be More Similar Than You Think — Careerwise
McGregor’s self-comparison to Michael Jordan may seem like a bit of a stretch at first, but once you run the numbers, it’s not all that crazy to consider. The former Tar Heel won six championship rings for the Chicago Bulls between 1991 and 1998, three-peating twice.
McGregor has won five world titles when you factor in both the interim and undisputed UFC featherweight championship, the lightweight title he took off Eddie Alvarez, and his two belts under the Cage Warriors banner.
Sure, Michael Jordan was a five-time MVP, but as we mentioned above, McGregor has headlined eight of the 10 biggest UFC PPVs of all time. He’s also responsible for three of the biggest gates in UFC history.
At the peak of his popularity, Jordan walked away from basketball to try his hand at baseball. He signed with the Chicago White Sox and completed one season, primarily playing for the Birmingham Barons, a Double-A club.
McGregor did something similar, leaving behind the UFC and both his belts for a professional boxing match with Floyd Mayweather.
After their unsuccessful stints competing elsewhere, both men returned to the sport that made them megastars.
In the twilight of his career, Jordan played for the Washington Wizards for two seasons. The team went 60-75 in games where the Brooklyn native saw time on the court. McGregor, who also finds himself in the waning years of his own career, has lost four of his last five fights, including his 2017 matchup with ‘Money’ in the sweet science.
Khabib Nurmagomedov has revealed his pick for the celebrity he would like to fight in a hypothetical contest. Former UFC Lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov managed to achieve a status rarely seen in MMA, retire at the most elite level undefeated. The legendary Dagestani was inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame last Thursday night. He […]
Khabib Nurmagomedov has revealed his pick for the celebrity he would like to fight in a hypothetical contest.
Former UFC Lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov managed to achieve a status rarely seen in MMA, retire at the most elite level undefeated. The legendary Dagestani was inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame last Thursday night. He spoke to the media about his unblemished career and answered some random questions as well.
Khabib Nurmagomedov reveals his celebrity pick for a fight
During the ceremony, Khabib was asked which fictional character or celebrity he would like to compete against. He took a brief pause before revealing his pick for the one celebrity he would fight.
“Michael Jordan,” Khabib answered. “Yes, you know why? I feel like I can take him down.”
Khabib vs. Michael Jordan – a hypothetical matchup
Michael Jordan is arguably the best basketball player of all time having won six NBA championships with numerous other honors. Jordan has a much larger stature of 6 foot 6 at 216 lbs whereas Khabib would stand at about 5 foot 10 weighing in at 155 lbs during his competition days.
Although ‘The Eagle’ appears to be much lighter on paper, weight cuts are a drastic measure taken in the sport and his normal walk-around weight is reported to be around 190-200 lbs.
Khabib explained that he believes he could take Jordan down. He holds the record for having the most takedowns in a single UFC fight, scoring 21 takedowns on 28 attempts in three rounds against Abel Trujillo at UFC 160. In a recent video that did rounds online, Khabib dominated former UFC Middleweight champion, Luke Rockhold, in a grappling session ahead of his return.
A much better comparison perhaps would be Khabib playing the same sport as Jordan. No doubt Khabib would win if the two played ‘Dagestani Basketball’, which is the closest match but maybe just a little too different for an accurate read.
Valentina Shevchenko has received high praise from her last opponent, Lauren Murphy, who she dominated, dismantled and dispatched of at UFC 266. During a recent interview with MMA Fighting, Murphy spoke about facing off against the “incredible” UFC flyweight champion who she compared to legendary basketball player, Michael Jordan. Lauren Murphy Reflects On Her First […]
During a recent interview with MMA Fighting, Murphy spoke about facing off against the “incredible” UFC flyweight champion who she compared to legendary basketball player, Michael Jordan.
Lauren Murphy Reflects On Her First Stoppage Loss
“She was incredible,” Murphy said of Shevchenko. “It was pretty crazy to be in there with somebody at that level because I’ve never truly competed with anybody that level before. I don’t remember the fourth round, really, so I guess that’s pretty good.
“It’s a bummer to lose, and that’s the first time I had ever been finished,” Murphy added. “I think it was a good stoppage, I was pretty out of it by the time the ref pulled her off of me. It’s definitely not the outcome we wanted but, to be honest with you, it was pretty cool to be in there with a martial artist of her caliber. That’s a pretty cool experience. That must be what it’s like to go play one-on-one with Michael Jordan, or that’s how guys felt when they were competing with Khabib [Nurmagomedov], because it really was, ‘Holy sh*t, this girl is really on another level.’”
Murphy realised in the first round that the fight with Shevchenko probably wasn’t going to go her way.
“We got into the fight and in the first round, one of the very first exchanges, Valentina cracked me with a right hook, I think, and I remember thinking, ‘I’m not gonna be tough through that. That’s gonna hurt me.’ Nope, being tough was a bad idea, that’s was a bad game plan,” Murphy explained. “I couldn’t see it coming at me and that was the big problem. If you get hit by a strike that you see, that’s one thing, but for it to come out of nowhere, that was something else.
‘Lucky’ expects Shevchenko to hold the 125lb strap for as long as she wants to.
“When I had walked out, I enjoyed the walkout, when we were being introduced, I didn’t feel too many nerves,” Murphy said. “That was all a good experience, but once the fight started, the skill level, it was just like, man, I can’t match this. When you get into a situation like that, what can you do? I fought my best, there’s nothing I could even feel bad about because we overcame all these challenges and gave it hell.
“It sucks to lose, but did I give it everything? Yeah, I think I did. Is Valentina head and shoulders above everybody in the division right now? Probably so. I can’t see anyone becoming champion while she decides to continue being the champion.”
Do you think Lauren Murphy is right to compare Valentina Shevchenko to Michael Jordan?
From the very beginning, there has been a fair share of post-fight meltdowns in MMA history.
Whether it was MMA’s original bad boy, Tito Ortiz, nearly inciting a riot with the Lions Den after his victory of Guy Metzger or Ronda Rousey going AWOL after losing the women’s bantamweight title, post-fight freakouts are must-watch TV.
The term meltdown or even freakout is a bit subjective. So for the purpose of this list, we will define meltdown as ‘a sudden loss of control over one’s feeling or behavior.’
So with that in mind, we scoured the combat sports landscape to bring you 10 of the biggest post-fight meltdowns in MMA history.
The list starts here, enjoy.
Daniel Cormier
Before Daniel Cormier became the undisputed “baddest man on the planet” by defeating Stipe Miocic at UFC 226 and thus becoming the first man ever to hold both the light heavyweight title and the heavyweight strap at the same time, he was one of the internet’s hottest memes.
Cormier met his longtime rival Jon Jones for the light heavyweight title at July 2017’s UFC 214 from Anaheim, California. Although “DC” faired well in the early going of the five-round fight, Jones was the better man on that night. He knocked Cormier out with a third-round head kick to regain the title before testing positive for ********.
Sadly, the image of a grown man in tears is what most people remember from UFC 214.
The crying face Cormier meme quickly became the web’s newest way to express one’s unpleasantries, joining the famous crying Michael Jordan meme in the process.
There seems to be a lot of chatter about Ronda Rousey’s mental state lately. The UFC women’s bantamweight champion has always gotten attention for her intensity and arm-snapping viciousness, but ever since Rousey the TUF 18 Coach began appearing on television a few weeks ago, the notion that the undefeated fighter is mentally unstable has started to pick up steam.
And then, of course, there’s Ronda crying. A lot. Like, all the time.
Not your normal, boo-hoo type of crying, either. Hers is an angry, motivated and terrifying type of cry. Former Strikeforce champion and would-be Rousey rival Cristiane “Cyborg” Justino called Rousey “mentally sick” after watching her on The Ultimate Fighter. Recently, Hallman did an interview where he recounted a story of an incident he said happened on the TUF set where Rousey told a producer of the show to shut their mouth while she was speaking to her, and then said that he believed that Ronda had mental health issues.
If Ronda Rousey is crazy, it’s the type of crazy that has become familiar to us in great competitors. Rousey isn’t an out-of-control head case, she’s a competitor. She’s not crazy, she’s a champion. And like many champions before her, Ronda is a fiercer competitor than most professional athletes. Her hyper-competitiveness, her apparent need to establish dominance in almost every and any situation, and her ability to used even perceived slights as fuel are traits Rousey shares with the likes of Michael Jordan and Anderson Silva.
(Ronda Rousey after successfully defending her UFC bantamweight title against Liz Carmouche in February. | Photo via Getty)
There seems to be a lot of chatter about Ronda Rousey’s mental state lately. The UFC women’s bantamweight champion has always gotten attention for her intensity and arm-snapping viciousness, but ever since Rousey the TUF 18 Coach began appearing on television a few weeks ago, the notion that the undefeated fighter is mentally unstable has started to pick up steam.
And then, of course, there’s Ronda crying. A lot. Like, all the time.
Not your normal, boo-hoo type of crying, either. Hers is an angry, motivated and terrifying type of cry. Former Strikeforce champion and would-be Rousey rival Cristiane “Cyborg” Justino called Rousey “mentally sick” after watching her on The Ultimate Fighter. Recently, Hallman did an interview where he recounted a story of an incident he said happened on the TUF set where Rousey told a producer of the show to shut their mouth while she was speaking to her, and then said that he believed that Ronda had mental health issues.
If Ronda Rousey is crazy, it’s the type of crazy that has become familiar to us in great competitors. Rousey isn’t an out-of-control head case, she’s a competitor. She’s not crazy, she’s a champion. And like many champions before her, Ronda is a fiercer competitor than most professional athletes. Her hyper-competitiveness, her apparent need to establish dominance in almost every and any situation, and her ability to used even perceived slights as fuel are traits Rousey shares with the likes of Michael Jordan and Anderson Silva.
Joe Rogan shared a keen observation about high-level competitors on his podcast once. He spoke about legendary athletes like Jordan, Muhammad Ali, and Mike Tyson and how traits of theirs that could be considered flaws, actually helped make them the champions they were.
“A lot of success in athletics comes down to almost, like, a psychosis,” Rogan said. “At a real high level of anything, there’s a certain amount of crazy behavior to get to this incredible position like Michael Jordan or Muhammad Ali or Mike Tyson in his prime. There’s a madness.”
Joe Rogan on the madness of excellence
MJ not only held on to grudges longer than anyone and turned them into fifty-point games, he was also so ruthlessly competitive that he punched his own teammates in the head during practices. Ali literally, and arguably criminally, stalked Sonny Liston outside his home, and before their first fight doctors came close to not even allowing the brash young star to compete because of his erratic behavior at the weigh in and because his heart rate and blood pressure were at dangerous levels afterwards. Anderson Silva has spent more time talking and taunting and pantomiming during some fights than actually fighting. He has worn masks, kissed and shoulder-checked opponents in the face during weigh-ins.
We don’t really have to detail Mike Tyson’s crazy behavior for you, do we?
Ronda Rousey’s craziness is becoming part of her persona, but it is clear that she’s often times acting out on purpose. She’s already said that a chief part of her strategy in her rematch with Tate is to get her opponent so angry and agitated by her antics leading up to the fight that she will not fight smart — something that Rousey believes happened in their first fight and helped her win so fast.
As for how legitimately touchy Ronda appears to be at times, her mind might very well be wired differently, but it is also likely a key to all her success. Like Silva and Jordan, Rousey appears to be a master at being able to use anything to fuel and motivate herself.
And, if Rousey couldn’t manufacture extra things to motivate her in fighting Tate again, there simply might not be enough there for her to be sharp. Think about it. Ronda beat Tate already and did so quickly and decisively. Most recently, Tate went out and lost to Cat Zingano in her UFC debut. Ronda, still undefeated, now has to fight a woman who she’s already beaten and who has lost two out of her last three fights.
Chances are that Ronda needs a little extra motivation to fight Tate again and so she’s giving it to herself on this season of TUF. In the sense of living a happy and healthy life outside of or after your competitive career, are traits like hyper competitiveness, a need to dominate, and an ability to make mountains our of mole hills great for a person’s emotional health? Maybe not. Would Rousey have become a champ without those traits, though? Unlikely.
Rousey is exactly what she has needed to be to succeed. That isn’t to discount how good, dedicated and hard fighting even someone as even-tempered as Meisha Tate can be and is. Tate is an excellent fighter, but how many of Rousey’s personality critics would be willing to put their money up against the champ in their rematch? All other things being equal in a fight, this writer will always bet on the meaner, madder dog.
So far, Ronda Rousey hasn’t met anyone meaner or madder and that’s a big reason why she’s the champ.
@pound4poundshow #UFC #MMA pic.twitter.com/TLiBDek42S
Conor McGregor compared himself to NBA icon Michael Jordan. There’s no denying that Conor McGregor is the most successful…
Khabib Nurmagomedov has revealed his pick for the celebrity he would like to fight in a hypothetical contest. Former UFC Lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov managed to achieve a status rarely seen in MMA, retire at the most elite level undefeated. The legendary Dagestani was inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame last Thursday night. He […]
Valentina Shevchenko has received high praise from her last opponent, Lauren Murphy, who she dominated, dismantled and dispatched of at UFC 266. During a recent interview with MMA Fighting, Murphy spoke about facing off against the “incredible” UFC flyweight champion who she compared to legendary basketball player, Michael Jordan. Lauren Murphy Reflects On Her First […]
