Daniel Cormier, a former UFC two-division champion, recently tackled Jon Jones’s latest social media outburst. Jones fired back after Cormier excluded him from an MMA Mount Rushmore, citing his past steroid use. Speaking on Good Guy/Bad Guy with Chael Sonnen, Cormier shared his honest take, praising Jones’s skills while calling out his strange obsession with negativity.
Cormier’s Candid Response
Cormier explained his approach to discussing Jones.
“Here’s the problem: I only answer the questions asked to me,” he said. “That’s what I do. Guy asks me a question about Jon Jones, I tell him my truth. The reality is this though, I will always go above and beyond to credit him with being, a) toughest guy I’ve ever fought, b) the hardest fight, one of the smartest fighters in the octagon. I give him all the credit of being one of the best fighters ever, but I’m not going to say, ‘Oh yeah, you’re one of the four greatest fighters of all time,’ when, like you said Chael, over the course of that career, there was a moment where you made the decision to do something you weren’t supposed to to elevate you inside of an octagon in a fist fight.”
He acknowledged Jones wasn’t alone in past controversies.
“I also say this, Chael, he’s not the only guy I fought like that. He’s just the only one I couldn’t beat. I never took a drug test until I got to the UFC. So it’s not like these guys weren’t doing anything, he was just the one I couldn’t beat,” Cormier said. “So I give him credit, but the guy is so weird. He’s such a weird guy. Because even if I will talk about him — this was 20 minutes of me talking about him and polishing him up, telling him all the great things about what he does in the octagon. It’s the negative thing that he latches onto because that’s what he wants to do. He wants to latch onto that negative thing. When in reality, I feel like I was very fair.”
Cormier also rejected Jones’s claim of making him feel lesser.
“To say, ‘made me feel inferior,’” he said. “You were a high school state champion, I won three, and a world medal in high school, and I made the United States world team when I was in high school. You were a JUCO national champion, I won two of those, and became an NCAA All-American and finalist. Then I went on to make two Olympic teams and win six U.S. National titles. Then you went on to become the youngest champion in UFC history. Absolutely. I was a UFC champion, too. In two divisions. So how can you tell someone their inferior when all the accolades are kind of the same but better? They’re just better. How do you call somebody inferior?”
He expressed some admiration for Jones’s recent confidence.
“Jon wants to be called the ‘Forever Champion.’ He said that now he should be called the ‘Forever Champion’ because of all of his accomplishments in the UFC and how long its been. Now Chael, this Jon Jones, I like!” Cormier said. “This, I like! I don’t like the whiny little bitch. I like this because you went through three decades of fighter! Now, are we going to call him the Forever Champ? No. But that I kind of like.” via MMAFighting
Cormier excelled in wrestling, winning three high school state titles and a bronze medal at the 1995 World Championships as a teenager. He secured two NJCAA titles at Colby Community College and became an NCAA All-American at Oklahoma State. He competed in the 2004 and 2008 Olympics, earning six U.S. national wrestling titles. Starting MMA in 2009, Cormier went 11-0 before joining the UFC in 2013. He won the UFC light heavyweight title by submitting Anthony Johnson at UFC 187 in 2015 and defended it against Alexander Gustafsson and Johnson. His losses to Jones came at UFC 182 in 2015 (decision) and UFC 214 in 2017 (knockout, later overturned to a no-contest due to Jones’s turinabol test). Cormier captured the heavyweight title by stopping Stipe Miocic at UFC 226 in 2018, becoming a two-division champion. He retired in 2020 after two losses to Miocic, finishing with a 22-3 record (15-3 in the UFC).
Jones, with a 28-1 record (21-1 in the UFC), defended his heavyweight title against Miocic at UFC 309 in November 2024 and is targeting a fight at a proposed UFC White House card in July 2026.
