Daniel Cormier spoke out after Jon Jones criticized Tom Aspinall following UFC 321. The fight with Ciryl Gane ended in a no-contest after an accidental eye poke in the first round. Jones called Aspinall a “one-trick pony” and suggested he only throws a 1-2 combination, claiming he could pick up on patterns in Aspinall’s game.
Cormier disagreed, stressing the fight was too short to judge.
“Four minutes! We don’t know what the next 21 minutes would have looked like. We just don’t,” he said. “But we as fighters, when we are watching someone that’s a potential opponent … you look for holes. You don’t give them credit for the things that they do, and that’s why, I feel, that the moment I started doing television in 2012 … I became a better fighter.”
UFC 321 Was Too Short to Judge
Cormier highlighted that the fight only lasted four minutes and ended due to a stoppage, not a full performance.
“Guys, that was a four-minute round of a fight. They did not fight a long enough fight to really form an opinion. You couldn’t really form an opinion as strongly as so many have. I think the reason they’ve formed an opinion in the strong way that they did is that they’ve never seen Tom struggle at all.”
He emphasized that early setbacks like Aspinall’s bloody nose and eye poke don’t reflect his overall skill.
“Maybe Tom Aspinall isn’t what Jon built him up to be in his mind prior to that fight, but I don’t know that we saw enough to form an opinion of his overall game in four minutes. It’s just the truth!”
Jones Viewed Aspinall as a Future Opponent
Cormier explained that Jones’ criticism came from watching Aspinall as a potential opponent.
“Jones is watching Aspinall only as a potential opponent, so in that he’s going, ‘Oh, that’s bad. And this is bad. Well, he doesn’t do this very well.’ Then he finds that one thing he can give him credit for, but everything else sucks. The jiu-jitsu sucks, the wrestling sucks, it’s a good 1-2. But it’s hard, because he can’t turn that off. He can’t turn off that one day he might fight Aspinall.”
Cormier also addressed fan reactions:
“Is Jon Jones being a little bit too harsh? Can we really form that strong an opinion based on four minutes? Does Tom Aspinall not deserve a little grace? And are we reacting only in this way because we’ve never seen him struggle at all? And also, how much can you struggle in four minutes? He had a bloody nose, and I think because he had that bloody nose, it made people feel, ‘Oh my god, this dude’s in trouble.’ Again, still 21 minutes left in the fight.”
Cormier credited commentary for refining his ability to evaluate fighters objectively.
“I became a better fighter … because I could never give guys credit before I started calling their fights.”
He provided historical context showing early rounds don’t define a fighter’s outcome:
“I watched Khabib Nurmagomedov lose a round to Justin Gaethje, and end up submitting him afterward and overtaking the fight. A lot can change between minute 4 and 7, 9, 15, 21, all the way to 25.”
