It’s hard to imagine a time when Jon Jones and Daniel Cormier were not beefing. That may be because in terms of their UFC careers, such a time has never existed. Even before Daniel Cormier set foot in the UFC Octagon, he had already made it a point that someday he would beat up Jon Jones after an awkward, if not contentious, initial meeting of the two athletes.
As the story goes, Jon Jones joked with Daniel Cormier that he could take him down, but Cormier did not get the joke. Instead, what he got was both a vendetta and a drive to be the man to defeat Jon Jones. Neither party ever revealed if the two ever shook hands, but one media event brawl and dozens of insults later, Jon Jones now believes that if he were to run into Cormier, he would extend an olive branch in the form of a handshake:
“I think it’s faded for sure,” Jones said of his rivalry with Cormier in an interview with TMZ. “If I were to see him in person, I’d try to play the role of being the bigger guy.
“Yeah, I would shake his hand if he wanted to shake hands. I doubt he’d want to shake my hand. And I’m not overly amped to try to shake his hand. But I try not to disrespect him too bad anymore. I try to let the guy just have what he has and I have what I have. Ultimately, in the history books, people will know who was the dominant fighter out of us two, and that’s plenty for me.”
Jon Jones continues to reign over the light heavyweight division following a razor-close split-decision victory over Thiago Santos at UFC 239. Daniel Cormier will put his heavyweight championship on the line at UFC 241 in a rematch against Stipe Miocic.
If Jon Jones and Daniel Cormier fought again, do you believe the build-up would be just as heated as the previous fight build-ups?
