Daniel Cormier received’t deny the greatness of his career-nemesis Jon Jones, however he’s not able to name Jones the best fighter in combined martial arts historical past.
Cormier met Jones on two totally different events with the UFC mild heavyweight title on the road. Jones received a call of their first battle at UFC 182 in 2015, and within the rematch, Jones delivered a head kick knockout to Cormier at UFC 214 over two years later. Nonetheless, Jones failed a drug check and the end result was overturned to a No Contest.
Throughout Friday’s UFC 312 Fan Q&A, Cormier was requested if Jones was the GOAT.
“You guys at all times do this and, truthfully, you’ll be able to’t deny his greatness,” Cormier stated. “Have a look at what he’s accomplished: The man has now fought via three generations of fighter — he fought that early technology with [Lyoto] Machida and them, he went via my technology, and now he’s combating an entire different technology of fellows.
“So, yeah, after all, he’s one of many biggest fighters of all-time, however once you do soiled shit, you don’t get to be known as the best of all-time.”
The post-UFC 214 failed check was not the primary incident Cormier handled when it got here to Jones. The historic rivals have been slated to compete in the primary occasion of UFC 200 in July 2016, however days earlier than the struggle, Jones was eliminated as a consequence of an anti-doping violation. A heartbroken Cormier remained on the cardboard and face longtime middleweight champ Anderson Silva on tremendous quick discover, successful the bout by way of unanimous resolution.
Jones went on to regain the sunshine heavyweight title after Cormier targeted on defending his heavyweight championship, defended it on three events, after which moved as much as heavyweight himself and captured his second divisional championship — which Jones nonetheless presently holds.
