When Daniel Cormier steps into the Octagon in the UFC 200 light heavyweight title unification main event against former champion Jon Jones, he feels he will be competing against a different man than the one who beat him back in January of 2015.
Cormier explained at the recent UFC 200 press conference that in his UFC 197 fight against Ovince Saint Preux, the world saw the “new Jon Jones.”
“I think this is Jon, this is the new Jon, this is Jon Jones with all the muscle,” Cormier said on The MMA Hour. “This is Jon Jones that likes to lift weights, who’s a big guy that’s cutting weight and can’t rehyrdate the old way under USADA rules. This is Jon Jones in the real world today, so when we fight in July he’s going to look the same.”
According to D.C., he saw seeds of doubt in Jones’ mind when he wasn’t able to put away OSP inside the distance at UFC 197.
‘He’s going to have questions. And he’s going to question himself, and you could see him processing things inside the cage. He’ll go home now and he’ll wonder, guess what bud, that’s who you are now. That’s how he’ll look to July when I’m kicking your ass.”
While Jones claimed that the short notice change in opponent was the reason he couldn’t get the finish inside the Octagon, Cormier isn’t buying it.
“You know from a guy that again said ‘I want to thank my Lord and Savior for getting me here,’ then flipped me off two minutes later, you understand he flip flops,” Cormier said. “In the Octagon he said the issue was he prepared to fight me and Ovince is a southpaw. If you watch the fight, OSP was fighting conventional almost the entire time.”
Cormier vs. Jones II headlines the landmark UFC 200 event on Saturday, July 9, 2016 at the brand new T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
H/T to MMAFighting.com for transcribing the above quotes.
