Daniel Cormier has nothing but praise for the recent approaches of the UFC’s heaviest champions.
Undisputed UFC heavyweight champion Jon Jones teased his imminent return through a series of tweets this past weekend. Jones, 36, noted that verbal agreements are in place for his return bout and first heavyweight title defense. Rather than spoil the surprise of who his challenger will be, "Bones" opted to let UFC CEO Dana White reveal everything when the time is right.
Jones' tease came shortly after expressing his belief that a title fight against light heavyweight king Alex Pereira would be significantly larger than an eagerly anticipated unification clash against the interim heavyweight titleholder, Tom Aspinall. The latter party, unfortunately, has never appeared to be the next option and after seeing Jones’ Twitter tirade shared that he had no update for his immediate future. Although the comments threw the majority of the online community into a frenzy, Jones' old rival Cormier liked to see the play made.
“Not everybody hits like Francis Ngannou or Alex Pereira, but if you can get away from that and manage that, it’s much less risky than fighting a guy with a full skillset that’s complete. That’s exactly what Tom Aspinall looks to be,” Cormier said on Good Guy / Bad Guy. “I love what Jon is doing in terms of being smart, finding the right matchup. I don’t know that it will fly.
“These athletes are much smarter today than they were before and I believe it makes for the sport to be even more interesting. I love it. I love what Jon is doing. I love what Alex is doing, but I think Jon is choosing: ‘Dude, I’m not fighting Tom Aspinall. Have you seen Tom Aspinall?’”
It was a somewhat counterproductive and unexpected move from Jones — unless the fight actually does happen — which led to many more claims of him being afraid of a fight with the talented Aspinall. Historically, the interim champion can expect their champion vs. champion collision to be forthcoming because of the absence that led to their title’s creation.
The promotion and White have maintained that the originally planned Stipe Miocic fight at UFC 295 last November will be rebooked for Jones. Speculation around the time leading up to it was that it very well could have, and still might be, Jones’ last fight. Another past opponent of Jones', Cormier's co-host Chael Sonnen, simply sees Jones’ interest in Pereira as an overall good sign more than anything.
Unfortunately for Miocic, he becomes less and less of the matchup the world wants to see as time goes on.
“You can call Jon Jones a lot of things, I’ll look the other way, I’ll even help you do it. You call Jon Jones scared, I’m not part of that,” Sonnen said. “It’s just not true. This is the second time in as many weeks that Jon Jones is talking about opponents that are not Stipe. Whether it was the faceoff with Aspinall or now all of the sudden he’s bringing up this huge payday with Pereira. He is starting to talk and warm to the idea that his next fight is not his last. That is the common theme here.”
