It’s hard not to feel for Daniel Cormier.
He’s the light heavyweight champion of the world. He always performs inside the Octagon, even when he accepts fights that he would have been perfectly entitled to turn down. He does all the media obligations without complaint and if it wasn’t for his confrontations with Jon Jones, he would be a perfect ambassador for the sport of MMA.
Despite all this, he remains a heel in eyes of a lot of fans whom he just can’t seem to win over. These are mostly fans who believe he is merely a belt-holder until the only man who ever defeated him, Jon Jones makes his return after failing a pre-UFC 200 drug test.
Nobody saw this coming https://t.co/KWfpnPOdhl
— JOE (@JOE_co_uk) July 7, 2016
Although Jones’ future is up in the air, recent reports and comments from the fighter suggest his punishment may be a lot less than the two years he was expected to face when the positive drug test result first emerged. The likelihood is that he’ll need a fight soon and Dana White reckons he has the perfect match-up for his return.
The UFC president believes Anthony Johnson, who’s fresh off a 13-second demolition of Glover Teixeira at UFC 202, would be the ideal opponent to welcome Jones back to the UFC, as he told UFC Unfiltered podcast.
“I’ve still got to talk to Joe Silva and see what he thinks. But I’m thinking maybe we do Anthony Johnson vs. Jon Jones to see who gets to fight Daniel Cormier.”
Cormier has an issue with this idea. Although Jones has been removed from the official rankings, he hasn’t been stripped of his interim strap. DC told Toe-2-Toe on SiriusXM Rush that having Jones defend his interim belt against Rumble would make zero sense.
“Now one thing I completely disagree with completely, and I don’t care who hears it, why in the hell would Jon still be the interim champion? That makes no sense. That makes absolutely no sense.”
“They should not be fighting for an interim championship. That makes no sense at all. I don’t even know why he would still be the interim champion. His ass was disqualified. Take that freaking belt off of him. That’s stupid.”
The champion has absolutely no problem with Jones and Johnson slugging it out, but he believes that no belt should be up for grabs in that fight, but rather it should be a number-one contender bout.
“I hope to God Dana misspoke, because that makes absolutely no sense. They aren’t fighting for some interim title if they fight. They can fight in the main event because it’s a big fight but it’s a fun fight.”
“If they fight, they fight to determine the number one contender it’s not some interim championship fight. That makes no sense at all… You’d have an interim champion defending the interim championship while the actual champion is actually still there. That makes no sense whatsoever.”
Read more