Daniel Cormier is the latest rival to come to the defence of Jon Jones, after the controversial fighter was left out of the UFC’s upcoming White House event.
On 14 June, the UFC will host an unprecedented fight card on the South Lawn, and the contests were unveiled on Saturday, with the co-main event pitting Alex Pereira against Ciryl Gane in an interim-title bout at heavyweight.
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Notable in his absence from the card was Jones, who retired last summer – and vacated the heavyweight belt in the process – but who immediately tried to reverse his retirement upon learning of the UFC’s White House plans.
Jon Jones during a press conference after failing a drug test in 2016 (Getty)
On Saturday evening, Dana White said Jones was never going to feature at the event, leading the former two-weight champion to challenge the UFC president’s claim; Jones, 38, insisted negotiations had taken place.
And even Tom Aspinall, who was elevated from interim champion to regular title-holder when Jones retired, went to bat for “Bones” – despite the American putting the Briton’s career on hold by refusing to fight him for the best part of two years.
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Now, Jones’s fiercest rival has come out in support of him, too.
Fighter-turned-commentator Cormier, who lost to Jones in 2015 before their 2017 no-contest, said on his YouTube channel: “I kind of felt bad for him. I felt bad for Jon, because it just seemed like he wanted to fight on that card bad.
“Think about this, and I’ve said this time and time again: I think Jon got to fight Stipe [Miocic] because he goes, ‘Give me this legacy one, and I’ll give you the Aspinall fight.’ Then he reneged. ‘I’m retired.’”
Cormier, 46, was referring to Jones’s sole defence of the heavyweight title, a stoppage win over Miocic in November 2024. Prior to that bout, at which time Miocic was 42 years old, the former champion had not competed since March 2021.
Before Jones stopped Stipe Miocic in November 2024, the latter hadn’t fought since March 2021 (Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)
“Then he goes, ‘I kind of want to fight at the White House,’” Cormier continued. “I think this is kind of like a come-to-Jesus moment.
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“At 28, 29 – no matter what you did – when he got that event cancelled with Chael [Sonnen], they said: ‘You’ll never headline again.’ But he was selling pay-per-views, so you had to go back to him. But at 38, 39, he’s got bad hips and injuries, and it looks like he’s on his way out. They’re kind of like, ‘You’re not going to prove value for me in the long term, so I don’t think we need bend over for you anymore.’ It’s crazy.”
This time, Cormier was referring to a 2012 event that was cancelled when Jones refused to face Sonnen on short notice, after Jones’s original opponent Dan Henderson withdrew.
“[Saturday was] not the first time [White has] said anything derogatory about him,” Cormier said. “It’s hard to get that upset when someone’s actually shown you that behaviour before, but right now, it seems like it just really bothered [Jones] that he was getting called a liar.
Dana White (centre) with Jones and Daniel Cormier (left) in 2016 (AP)
“I’ve called him everything. He’s been called negative stuff for years, but now it’s like this thing bothered him. I honestly think maybe it was because the White House thing meant something to him.”
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Jones took to social media to ask for his UFC release, but Cormier said: “There’s no way you can release Jones, because then Jones and Francis [Ngannou] can be made outside of the UFC. That’s you giving someone power. You can’t let him go. There’s no way that he could actually fight anywhere else or be released. I don’t think he’s getting released.”
Last week, it was announced that ex-UFC champion Ngannou had left the PFL, and that he will fight Philipe Lins at an event organised by Jake Paul’s Most Valuable Promotions. The fight will take place at the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, California, on 16 May.
After Jones outpointed Cormier in 2015, they clashed again in 2017, with Bones knocking out “DC” but later seeing the win overturned to a no-contest. The altered result came courtesy of a failed drug test by Jones – neither his first nor last. His first two failed drug tests thwarted planned contests with Cormier in early 2015 and in 2016.
Despite his failed drug tests and numerous run-ins with the law, many fans consider Jones the greatest mixed martial artist of all time. His record stands at 28-1 (1 NC), with his sole defeat having come via disqualification in 2009.
