Daniel Cormier denies ever telling Jon Jones that he’s keeping their rivalry alive for the cameras.
Cormier and Jones’ rivalry is well-documented. Although their UFC light heavyweight title fights took place a decade ago, the pair continued to trade barbs over the years – including during their filming of ALF Global’s “Alf Reality” series.
Advertisement
Jones claimed that Cormier had a private conversation with him, where he admitted that their beef has made him so much money that he can never be friends with him in front of the people. Cormier reminded Jones that not too long ago, he called him a d*ckhead.
“How does a person go from, ‘He’s such an a**hole’ to now, ‘I would love to have this relationship with him and he doesn’t hate me?’,'” Cormier said on his YouTube channel. “That just didn’t happen. … This is not a conversation that Jon and I had. It just isn’t. Have I made a lot of money because Jon Jones and I have been on the wrong side of each other? Yes. And so did Muhammad Ali with Joe Frazier, and so did Muhammad Ali with George Foreman – and I’m not comparing myself to him. So did Khabib (Nurmagomedov) with Conor McGregor, and Conor McGregor with other people. You always need a person on the other side in order to make the big dollars. That is not a false thing. Jon and I got big money to go to Thailand.
“Of course, we make money because our rivalry has been what it’s been, but it doesn’t mean that it’s fabricated. I have told you guys on this show: It’s not what it used to be. We can operate around each other. It’s actually tolerable being in a certain space with Jon Jones without having to feel that we’re going to run at each other and start fighting at every turn. That doesn’t mean that I’m forgiving all the wrongdoings and all the things that happened over the course of the career, or I forget all the things we said. Nasty, nasty things about each other, we said nasty stuff things about each other’s families. That stuff doesn’t just go away unless you’re crazy. And I think Jon’s crazy.”
Jones beat Cormier twice in the octagon, first by unanimous decision at UFC 182, then by knockout at UFC 214 – which was later overturned to a no contest when Jones tested positive for a turinabol metabolite.
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Daniel Cormier: ‘Crazy’ Jon Jones and I never had conversation about our beef
