UFC 197’s main card took a serious blow when Daniel Cormier was forced to withdraw with an injury.
The light heavyweight champion suffered a foot injury, denying him a chance to avenge his only career defeat, which was by unanimous decision to Jon Jones at UFC 182.
It would have been one of the most anticipated re-matches in UFC history, but now Jones faces Ovince Saint Preux for the interim light heavyweight belt.
But Cormier still wants to see ‘Bones’ lose, and has offered to finance Saint Preux’s training camp himself in order to ensure his biggest rival is humbled.
Speaking to The MMA Hour, Cormier outlined his plan to help his replacement take down Jones.
“We’ll open our doors to him, to come and train at the American Kickboxing Academy,” he said.
“I don’t care what happens in the future, I can’t train with Ovince but I’ve got a guy named Cain Velasquez that can train with him, I’ve got a guy named Luke Rockhold that can train with him.
“We’ve got everything in place, where he can just take my training camp for the next few weeks. We will take care of it, we’ll fly Ovince and his team out here, we’ll put him up and give him a place to stay, because no-one in the gym wants to see Jon Jones not have to fight a tough fight on April 23rd.”
When asked to clarify if he was serious by MMA Hour host Ariel Helwani, Cormier doubled down on his promise:
“I’ll be one of his coaches. Listen, nobody wants to fight Jon Jones worse than I do, so if I can live through Ovince on April 23rd then I will live through Ovince on April 23rd.”
It doesn’t look like OSP will be taking up Cormier’s offer, though. When Helwani put the offer to Saint Preux later on in the show, he politely declined.
“Well, actually I was listening to the show when he actually said that,” OSP explained. “I know Daniel, we talk. Every time I see him we get to talking and stuff. And my manager, they text from time to time.
“But, it’s just one of them situations. Like I said, from day one I’ve been here with my trainers and stuff. It’s one of them things that we talked about, I’ve been with my camp from day one and I appreciate the invitation and everything, all the hospitality.
“Even going back to the Strikeforce days with Bob Cook. Definitely appreciate the invitation, but I think with everything we’ve got going on over here… My coach came up with a solid game plan and I think we definitely gonna be okay.”
