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A Jon Jones or Daniel Cormier Victory: Which One Is Best for Business? (Video)

Long-time light heavyweight champion Jon Jones will face his greatest challenge in the undefeated Daniel Cormier at UFC 182.
Jones, arguably the greatest light heavyweight champion of all time, looks to not only extend his title defense streak to eight…

Long-time light heavyweight champion Jon Jones will face his greatest challenge in the undefeated Daniel Cormier at UFC 182.

Jones, arguably the greatest light heavyweight champion of all time, looks to not only extend his title defense streak to eight, he is also set on settling the “bad blood” that has come about between he and the division’s No. 1 contender.

Both men are driven and accomplished in their own right. However, although a Cormier victory would send shock waves throughout the MMA world (especially a dominant one), given Jones’ polarizing personality, age and dominance among his peers, his triumph at UFC 182 would continue to produce great dividends for the UFC in the long run.

Image Issues Equal Success

Despite his dominance in the Octagon, Jones is one of the most disliked champions in the UFC today. Mainly, the champion’s opponents have accused him of being “fake.” Even recently, Cormier voiced his dissatisfaction with Jones’ disingenuous nature. Appearing on ESPN’s SportsCenter, Cormier stated:

So fake. He’s a fake individual. A fake person and I am gonna beat him up…

He is such a fake human being.

However, Jones has seemed to embrace comments that paint him in such a disparaging manner. According to Damon Martin of Fox Sports.com, the champion stated:

I just learned to let go. When I read my comments on Twitter and Instagram, I realize I really do inspire people and touch people and people really do appreciate who I am as a martial artist. Then when I read some of the people who leave me negative messages, it’s always so dumb. It’s like ‘dude, you’re fake’. I’ve been hearing that I’m fake for so many years. It’s like who cares If I’m fake? I win fights. That’s what I’m here to do. I’m not here to win you over with my personality. I’m here to fight. That’s ultimately my job.

At the end of the day, people either love Jones, or they love to hate him. Regardless, he sports almost one million Twitter followers (versus Cormier’s 159,000), which give light to his massive popularity, while his comments and actions serve as a constant hotbed of conversation in the MMA world.

Age, Dominance and the Foreseeable Future

Jones became the youngest champion in UFC history at 23 years old, defeating a veteran and former two-time world champion in Mauricio Rua. During his reign, Jones has gone on to claim victories over four more former world champions. With the exception of his epic battle with Alexander Gustafsson at UFC 165, he has virtually beaten all of his other opponents with ease.

Furthermore, Jones’ age, 27, accompanied by his complete dominance over the light heavyweight division, creates excitement regarding his future. Jones has already defended the 205-pound title more than any other champion in UFC history.

At the same time, he has also expressed a great interest in staking his claim as a dominant heavyweight. Given his success at light heavyweight, there is no reason to believe that Jones would not duplicate that in a heavier weight class.

In fact, Jones believes that he is just “two wins away from a move to the heavyweight division.” According to Brett Okamoto of ESPN, Jones stated:

[Cain Velasquez] (the UFC heavyweight champion) would be a hell of a fight, man. It would be a fight of my life. That’s what it’s about, though. I’ve been in one of those fights where I’m bleeding and I’m exhausted and it’s not fun to be a part of. The Gustafsson fight — [that is] not fun. I’d be willing to do that for the right champion, though, and the fans.

Cormier, on the other hand, is 35 years old. In his ascent to the No. 1 spot, DC has fought no one of great value. Cormier’s most significant opponent to date has been Dan Henderson, whom he fought at UFC 173. The stature gained from this victory, however, remains questionable. Many believe that Henderson, a former multi-time world champion, should retire. Hendo is 44 years old and is 1-4 in his last four fights.

In the UFC’s Bad Blood promo, Jones mocked Cormier’s win over Henderson. He exclaimed:

Daniel Cormier’s been asking for this fight for a long time. He beat Dan Henderson, who’s like a 60-year-old, and started talking trash to me on the mic right away. I’m going to give him what he’s wanted, and that’s an opportunity to get his butt whooped by me.

Even if Cormier ekes out a win against his seemingly toughest opponent at UFC 182, longevity in the MMA game is not on his side as he enters into his late 30s.

In the end, the UFC can continue to cash in on Jones’ ability to make headlines, his youth and dominance for years to come.

Jones vs. Cormier: Bad Blood Promo

Follow this featured columnist @clintonbullock

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UFC 182: Josh Burkman Eyeing ‘Storybook’ Opportunity Against Hector Lombard

Don’t call it a comeback. At least that’s not how Josh Burkman sees his return to the UFC.
While it’s been more than six years since The People’s Warrior has competed inside the Octagon, the 34-year-old veteran has spent every step of his absence from …

Don’t call it a comeback. At least that’s not how Josh Burkman sees his return to the UFC.

While it’s been more than six years since The People’s Warrior has competed inside the Octagon, the 34-year-old veteran has spent every step of his absence from the sport’s biggest stage scrapping to get back to where he believes he belongs. A three-fight skid may have cost him his roster spot back in 2008, but Burkman has gotten things back on track in a big way as he’s won nine of his 11 showings inside the cage since parting ways with the premier organization in mixed martial arts.

Yet, with that work coming outside of the spotlight of the UFC, it has taken quite some time for the versatile welterweight to gain the type of traction he needed to return to the Octagon. And that particular stigma is certainly something Burkman acknowledges. The Utah native has been competing in MMA for more than a decade and is well aware of how fans tend to view fighters competing outside of the UFC banner…that’s if they even manage to see them at all.

Nevertheless, Burkman has earned his way back and believes he’s sitting on the ideal opportunity in facing welterweight knockout-artist Hector Lombard in his return at UFC 182 this Saturday in Las Vegas. The former Bellator middleweight champion has been a wrecking machine since dropping down to 170 pounds, but Burkman is as game as they come and believes derailing a fighter with Lombard’s profile will be a proper re-introduction to the UFC fanbase.

Don’t call it a comeback. Burkman believes his upcoming bout is more of a reminder that he’s an elite-level fighter and can be a major player in the talent-rich ranks of the UFC’s welterweight division.

“It’s great to be back in the UFC and this is things coming full circle for me,” Burkman told Bleacher Report. “It was always my goal to get back to the UFC, and the icing on the cake is that I get to do it against an opponent like Hector Lombard. That puts me right back into the swing of things.

“I was talking and catching up with Jon Jones and he asked me why no one is giving me a chance in this fight and I told him it was because I’ve been fighting outside of the UFC. Sometimes when that is the case it just doesn’t matter what you’ve done. But this is my chance to show everyone once and for all that I’m an elite mixed martial artist against an opponent no one is giving me a shot against. This is my chance to show everyone what I got on the biggest stage in the world. I’m up for that challenge.”

While Burkman will be looking to re-establish himself in the welterweight ranks at UFC 182, the American Top Team product will be looking to further his case for a future title opportunity. Although the Cuban powerhouse stumbled a time or two right out of the gates with the UFC, his drop down into 170-pound waters has yielded impressive results.

The former Olympic judoka made good in his divisional debut by starching Nate Marquardt at UFC 166 in October of 2013, then followed that up with a unanimous-decision victory over former Strikeforce champion and UFC title challenger Jake Shields five months later at UFC 171. Back-to-back victories have Lombard feeling the momentum many expected him to have when he came over from Bellator back in 2012, but Burkman has plans to create some noise of his own this Saturday night.

In his mind their pairing is as storybook as it gets in combat sports, and defeating Lombard will make the exact caliber of statement he’s looking to make at UFC 182.

“I think this fight has a great story to it,” Burkman said. “On my side you have a fighter who had to work his way back, kept getting close, but the timing wasn’t right to bring me back. Then I do get my chance and it’s against a guy that nobody supposedly wants to fight in Hector Lombard. Hollywood makes movies about stuff like this. A guy battling his way back to face a fighter nobody wants to fight. It’s a great opportunity for me and I’m very grateful for it. I look forward to going out and performing on Saturday night.

“Lombard may lose some explosiveness over the course of a fight, but he never loses his strength. He always has that. One way I know not to fight this fight is to try to weather the storm against him. People get killed in the storm where I try to ride it out. I think you have to go in there and go after him. You have to step up and fight him and that’s what I’m going to do. I’m not going in there trying to survive or weather the storm, I’m bringing the fight right to him. Mark my words: I’m going to bring the fight right at Hector Lombard and I’m sure he’s going to bring it right back, and that will make for an exciting fight.”

Duane Finley is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report. All quotes are obtained firsthand unless noted otherwise.

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Daniel Cormier Knows It Could Be Now or Never to Win UFC Gold, Break the Bank

Daniel Cormier has made a lot of smart choices during the extended lead-up to Saturday night’s UFC 182 clash against Jon Jones.
You could argue, in fact, that the undefeated former U.S. Olympic wrestling team captain has yet to make a wrong turn during…

Daniel Cormier has made a lot of smart choices during the extended lead-up to Saturday night’s UFC 182 clash against Jon Jones.

You could argue, in fact, that the undefeated former U.S. Olympic wrestling team captain has yet to make a wrong turn during his five-year MMA career. Certainly, Cormier‘s impressive amateur credentials had him set for success all along, but he’s also been savvy and thoughtful enough to cop to a certain amount of cold, hard pragmatism.

He was already 30 years old when he made his MMA debut in 2009 and will be just two-and-a-half months shy of turning 36 when he tangles with Jones this weekend. Cormier knows full well that the clock is ticking on his athletic prime and that this fight may well represent his last best chance both to win a world title and make a lot of money in the process.

His distaste for all things “Bones” Jones is obviously very real, but we’d be foolish not to acknowledge that these two guys have also put on a master class in fight promotion during the last six months or so—and that they both probably know exactly what they’re doing.

That trend continued during Monday’s media events. Cormier largely let Jones take the lead in playing the villain—always a clever gambit—but also confirmed along with the light heavyweight champ during an appearance on Fox Sports 1 that he can’t rule out the possibility of another huge on-stage brawl by the end of the week.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen at the weigh-in on Friday,” Jones said, via MMAJunkie.com. “I’m a guy who lives in my heart, so whatever happens, happens. I’ll be ready for combat. I’ll be ready to take it any way it goes.”

“As Jon says, we take it how it goes,” Cormier concurred. “It’s a matter of, ‘How are we going to do this?’ I would prefer to wait until Saturday, but if we had to fight on Friday, it would be OK, I guess.”

You don’t have to be P.T. Barnum to appreciate the genius at work here.

Of course, Jones and Cormier aren’t going to fight at the weigh-ins. After half a year’s worth of schtick, an unforeseen injury delay and just a couple days away from the first event of the UFC’s vitally important 2015? No way.

But there’s sure no harm in leaving the door cracked open just a little bit. The producers of Friday’s weigh-in show will no doubt thank them for it later.

You can’t blame Cormier—who in real life is by all accounts one of MMA’s nicest men—if he’s been more than just a willing participant in building this rivalry. Saturday night marks his first UFC main event, his first chance to win a major MMA title—apologies to the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix championship, but, yeah—and to capture the spoils that go along with it.

A victory etches his name into the history books as the guy who took the gold off the unbeatable No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter in the world. It also sets him up for a high-profile and extremely lucrative 2015, with a potential Jones rematch or a big-money fight with either Alexander Gustafsson or Anthony Johnson.

A loss? Cormier has known since the beginning what that would mean.

“I don’t have the luxury, at 35 years old, of having a hiccup,” he admitted to Philly.com’s Justin Klugh in March as he prepared to take on Dan Henderson. “The pressure’s more on me because I know that this is my last chance to do something really special in regards to my athletic career.”

It was Cormier, remember, who called out Jones in the first place after dispensing Henderson by easy-peasy rear-naked choke at UFC 173. The speech he gave to UFC color commentator Joe Rogan sounded both rehearsed (“I’m that kid at the wrestling tournament that’s always in your bracket.”) and a touch out of character for the mild-mannered Cormier (“You can’t run from me forever. Wherever you go, boy, I’ll be coming.”).

In any case, it was shrewd. Cormier clearly knew the shortest distance between his 2-0 mark at 205 pounds and a title shot was to needle the division’s notoriously needle-able champion.

Since then, their trash talk—which had been copious—unfolded in more or less the same fashion. Whether it’s Jones prompting his six-year-old daughter to enter the fray on Instagram (“DC, my dad’s going to beat you up.”) or Cormier blasting Jones when they thought ESPN’s cameras weren’t rolling (“You are the fakest person. I actually admire that you can be this fake.”), there’s been an awkward undercurrent to it all. (Warning: Link contains NSFW language.)

It’s been Jones admitting he’s embracing his role as the bad guy while Cormier chuckles to himself and smiles like he can’t quite believe the words that are coming out of either of their mouths. It’s been wonderful TV, but it also hasn’t happened by accident. Even when it did.

The enmity between these two men isn’t fake. It’s not staged. But it’s also not not staged, right?

In 2014-15, we must assume any time two professional fighters engage in an over-the-top public beef that at least some of it is for our benefit. Two guys as smart, disciplined and experienced as Jones and Cormier don’t topple off the stage, all arms and legs in the middle of a Las Vegas casino, without a sly wink to the fourth wall. They don’t do it without—as UFC President Dana White once urged Nick Diaz—playing the game just a little bit.

In Cormier‘s case, we know it’s because he understands the gravity of the moment. No way does he want to lose this fight, only to spend another year he doesn’t have rebuilding himself at light heavyweight or even heavyweight.

He wants to win, but if he can’t do that, he at least wants to go home knowing he pulled out all the stops in and out of the cage.

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UFC 182: Full Fight Card and Predictions for Jones vs. Cormier

There have been many pay-per-views this year for the UFC, but few have as much mainstream appeal as Saturday’s UFC 182 event headlined by the Light Heavyweight Championship fight between Jon Jones and Daniel Cormier.
Jones and Cormier have a simi…

Jones and Cormier have a similar background and were friends for many years. After Cormier dropped weight and made it clear he was coming after Jones and the light heavyweight title, the friendship ended and the rivalry began.

For months, these two men have torn each other down publicly and now have the chance to prove their points in the Octagon.

Here is the full UFC 182 fight card, the predicted winner for every fight and a quick preview of the main event.

Quick Preview of Jones vs. Cormier

The UFC has saved the best for last in 2014. The battle between Jones and Cormier has been brewing for months. Jones was originally supposed to fight Alexander Gustafsson at UFC 178, but he pulled out with an injury and was replaced by Cormier.

Shortly after Cormier was awarded the fight, Jones was forced to pull out with an injury as well.

The fight was rescheduled for Saturday in the UFC 182 main event, but the two men have talked trash since the original fight was made. With over four months of material to build from in video packages, including a brawl at a press conference, hardcore and casual MMA fans alike are intrigued by this potential Fight of the Year candidate.

To show the true animosity between the two men, the trash-talking has even spilled over into the Friday weigh-ins, when Jones fold Fox’s America’s Pregame (h/t MMAJunkie.com) that he’d be ready to fight at the scales if necessary. When Cormier heard those comments, he responded to MMAJunkie.com:

I think you have to (keep your emotions in check). What’s the point of fighting on Friday when we’ve got to wait 24 hours to fight on Saturday? Right now, it’s about staying the course and being professional. It will be good to see him in that state.

As Jon says, we take it how it goes. It’s a matter of, ‘How are we going to do this?’ I would prefer to wait until Saturday, but if we had to fight on Friday, it would be OK, I guess.

Even UFC President Dana White can’t hide his excitement:

As great as the pre-hype for the fight has been, fans are even more excited to finally see the two former friends-turned-enemies step inside the Octagon. Both men have a wrestling background, but Cormier’s wrestling experience is far more impressive.

Add in the fact that Cormier has dropped a considerable amount of excessive fat to move down to the light heavyweight division, and he will be faster than ever while still possessing the same amount of power. Jones didn’t win 11 straight fights without knowing how to avoid his opponents’ biggest strengths, but Cormier knows Jones inside and out.

The two fighters are evenly matched in the Octagon and are intellectual equals. The difference in this fight will be the power Cormier possesses. As a former heavyweight star, Cormier has an incredible amount of strength and force behind his punches, and that will be a serious issue for Jones throughout the bout.

If Cormier catches Jones with one of his huge punches, there is little doubt the champion will find himself in serious trouble. After successfully defending the belt seven times, the end of this championship reign appears to be at hand.

Predicted Winner: Cormier via fourth-round TKO.

Stats via UFC.com.

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Jones vs. Cormier Preview: Don’t Sleep on DC’s Striking

Saturday night is the night we have all been waiting for—Jon Jones defends the UFC light heavyweight championship against Daniel Cormier.
Cormier is an elite-level wrestler, and that skill is seen as his path to victory this weekend. He has to ge…

Saturday night is the night we have all been waiting for—Jon Jones defends the UFC light heavyweight championship against Daniel Cormier.

Cormier is an elite-level wrestler, and that skill is seen as his path to victory this weekend. He has to get inside, use his wrestling and beat up Jones on the canvas. While that is his best path to capturing gold at UFC 182, no one should be sleeping on what he can do with his hands.

The former Olympian is in his fifth year as a pro. He has had a long time to develop his striking at AKA, one of the premier camps for MMA fighters to hone their striking skills. He got to show off his power in the heavyweight division with several knockouts. His knockout of Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva is what put him on the map as a top-tier heavyweight.

The concern with Jones is how well he can manage distance. Jones will not want Cormier in close because of his wrestling disadvantage, but this also plays to his advantage in striking, as he will have a substantial reach advantage. Cormier has a 72.5-inch reach, while Jones’ reach comes in at 84.5.

Jones has been touched before. His striking defense is not impenetrable. According to official UFC statistics provided by FightMetric, Jones only has 66 percent in the area of striking defense. He has been hit by plodding strikers like Glover Teixeira and Quinton “Rampage” Jackson—just at a lower rate than Cormier.

The champion’s striking accuracy is just over the halfway mark at 54 percent. Jones’ significant strikes landed per minute is only marginally better than Cormier. The challenger has an underrated boxing game, and has big power in his hands. If he can land a few on Jones, it could be a quick night.

Cormier‘s main striking success comes from in close, and has been achieved against slower heavyweights. That has to be noted. It will not be nearly as easy against Jones. It is just worth noting that he is not entirely out of his depth.

AKA prepares their fighters extraordinarily well. We have seen Cain Velasquez blossom from a collegiate wrestler into a fighter who out-struck Junior dos Santos with ease in their last two meetings. His hands looked outstanding. Cormier is likely on that same path.

All of the stats and video show that Cormier is a solid striker who continues to get better standing, but this is MMA. The effect of his wrestling on Jones will only assist his success on foot.

The more he can get the champion’s back against the fence, the more success he can have with dirty boxing, an area where Cormier has proven to excel. It will also help him fight at distance as Jones focuses on defending takedowns.

Jones is without question the more diverse striker in this matchup, but there is no reason to completely whitewash Cormier‘s chances on foot. He has good boxing technique, excellent power and possesses the ability to slip and counter effectively.

If Cormier goes in to stand and exchange with Jones, he will lose. If Jones can manage the distance effectively, he will retain. But Cormier has the ability to hold his own standing, and that will give him chances to either end this fight with one shot, or to capitalize on openings Jones leaves to turn this fight into a grappling affair.

No one should completely overlook Cormier‘s chances on foot. That is where the fight starts each round, and he will be prepared for Jones’ physical gifts. Saturday will be a very interesting day to see what the game plan is for Cormier on foot.

Is he at a disadvantage standing? Absolutely. Is he completely outclassed in that aspect? That video and those statistics say you may be surprised on Saturday night.

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The Question: Can Daniel Cormier Beat Jon Jones at UFC 182?

Bleacher Report lead mixed martial arts writers Jonathan Snowden and Jeremy Botter have decided to band together—much like The Avengers or the Mega Powers, except better looking and with no tights—and tackle important questions facing the M…

First up: Can Daniel Cormier shock the world and end the reign of the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world?

Jonathan: I’ve been on the Jon Jones bandwagon since it first started taking passengers. To the chagrin of many, I called him the best fighter the sport had ever seen. Not controversial at all today. Groundbreaking in 2011—and he’s only gotten better.

Jones is a five-tool fighter. He has the wrestling prowess, sturdy ground game, striking from distance and clinch work to compete with the world’s best in each category. Add a legitimate mean streak and an unquenchable will to win and you’re left with an athlete seemingly destined to lord over the sport for years to come.

With this in mind, I only have one question about Daniel Cormier‘s chance to win. How?

Jeremy: There is no question that Jones is the best fighter walking the planet. He’s probably the best fighter in the history of the sport.

So in that respect, you and I agree: Jones is the best ever. And you listed all the reasons why. We haven’t seen many holes in his game, if any, and his penchant for beating his opponent at the strongest aspect of their game is incredible. You and I sat next to each other that night in Atlanta, back at UFC 145, when Jones absolutely wrecked Rashad Evans. Going into that fight, we both thought Evans had the tools to beat Jones. We were wrong. We were so very, very wrong.

But I believe Cormier has what it takes to beat Jones, and I think there’s a good chance he pulls it off.

For starters, Cormier‘s wrestling can’t be compared with anyone else Jones has faced. Cormier and Evans are not on the same level. Evans can’t even SEE Cormier‘s level. Mike Goldberg and Joe Rogan love to throw around the “world class” term, but when applied to Cormier‘s wrestling, it is absolutely true.

Jones will not take Cormier down. It won’t happen. Jones is a fantastic wrestler, but Cormier‘s strength and skill allow him to keep the fight where he wants.

I’ll also echo something Cormier‘s coach Bob Cook told me last month when I was at AKA watching Cormier spar. “He just has a unique and very rare ability to land punches,” Cook said. “Even when he was just starting out and had horrible technique, he knew how to land.” Cormier is an accurate striker, and you and I have talked in the past about how his striking style resembles Fedor Emelianenko. He lands devastating power punches and he does so with accuracy. Mix that with his wrestling and cardio, and you have the recipe for someone with a pretty good chance of dethroning the champ.

Jonathan: Cormier was a world-class wrestler. Emphasis on was. He’s still definitely among the very best we’ve seen in the Octagon—but it’s not 2007 and Cormier is not the second coming of Dan Gable he’s often made out to be.

Listen, watching Cormier toss Dan Henderson around was a lot of fun. And it was quite impressive—but I’d seen it before from lesser grapplers with significantly less impressive pedigrees. And I’ve also seen ordinary wrestlers like Devin Cole do a decent job shaking Cormier off. He’s not unimpeachable in an MMA context.

That said, I concede his game is fearsome. Wrestling remains one of the foundations of a great MMA fighter’s game—either as an offensive weapon or a defensive shield. That’s a huge advantage for Cormier in any fight.

But MMA rarely rewards the one-dimensional anymore. For Cormier to execute a wrestling-based game plan, he has to enter into wrestling range. And, as Evans learned, that’s not always so easy against someone with Jones’ physical tools.

Jeremy: Those elbows and oblique kicks from Jones are the things nightmares are made of. Sitting here and thinking about Jones kicking me in the thigh, my leg bending backwards in ways it’s not supposed to?

Cormier certainly has to close the distance, and he has to figure out a way to negate or avoid those oblique kicks. If he doesn’t, it could be a very short or very long night. He can’t sit on the outside with Jones because his outside is so much further away than Cormier‘s.

The single scariest thing about Jones, though, is his mind. He studies his opponents more than any fighter in the sport. He compiles reams of data on their tendencies and weaknesses. And then he attempts to beat them using the strongest aspect of their game, mostly because he thinks it’s fun. But he won’t beat Cormier at wrestling. He won’t trip or suplex or throw him. And he won’t outmuscle him against the Octagon, either.

I think this is going to be a war of attrition. I don’t think it’s going to be pretty. I think it’s going to be a grueling grind, and that’s the kind of fight that favors Cormier.

Jonathan: Is it though?

The truth is, we’ve never really seen Daniel Cormier tested in the cage. And while it’s hardly his fault he’s managed to outclass his opponents so easily, it does leave some rather fundamental questions to the imagination.

What happens the first time Cormier gets rocked? I mean truly wobbled. Can he reach down and rise up, finding the wherewithal to overcome? We’ve seen Jones do it. Against Vitor Belfort and against Alexander Gustafsson he found a way to win when defeat looked likely.

Cormier, for all his wrestling credentials, was second-place on his best day. I know Jon Jones is a winner. Daniel Cormier still has to prove it to me.

Jeremy: This sounds familiar, probably because you could apply the same theory to Jones a few years ago. He’d never really faced true elite competition until he fought Shogun Rua for the belt. We didn’t know what he was capable of because we’d never seen him face an opponent who could push him.

You saw how that one ended. And this one has the potential to end the same way, with Cormier‘s hand raised in the air and a new gold belt strapped around his waist. Because it is true that Cormier hasn’t been tested by any of his opponents, but when did we start using dominance as a slight against someone? Why can’t we allow the fact that the man has never lost a round or even a minute of action in the cage as a sign that he might be something special?

I am not saying it is likely or even probable. What I’m saying is this: Cormier has a much better chance of winning than some are giving him, Jonathan, and don’t be surprised if he walks out of the Octagon with the belt. I know I won’t be.

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