Daniel Cormier was so impressed by Jon Jones.
At UFC 309, Jon Jones kept his heavyweight title by beating Stipe Miocic in the third round with a TKO. Fans had been waiting for this fight for a long time, even before Jon was the light heavyweight champ and Stipe was the heavyweight champ. It was a big deal! For Daniel Cormier, it just showed how awesome Jon really is.
“This fight was built as the greatest heavyweight of all-time taking on who many consider the greatest fighter of all-time,” Cormier said on his YouTube channel. “From the very start of this fight it was very apparent that these two are not on the same level. From Round 1 — Jon Jones has a 10-8 round in Round 1. …
“That early takedown played such a massive part in the way that the fight played out, because it took a lot out of Stipe, and then he looked slow chasing Jon down.
“When a guy like Jon Jones gets into the octagon, you have to be prepared for so much, because there’s so much coming at you. So these guys will put people in training camps to try and replicate that, but then when you’re in there with him, it’s so different because the speed is different, the fight I.Q. is different, the ability to set up all those weapons is much different. …
“It looked like Stipe expected something, and he got something completely different. It was a wipeout. It really was a wipeout. And while I was surprised, I knew that this fight could go one of two ways. It could be very close, it could be very competitive, or it could be one-sided. Tonight we got option two, the one-sided fight where Miocic didn’t get much accomplished.”
Cormier knows both Jon Jones and Stipe Miocic really well. He fought Stipe three times for the heavyweight title and had two big fights with Jon, which became one of the most famous rivalries in UFC. Even though Cormier and Jon don’t always get along, the UFC Hall of Famer will always admit that Jon is super good at what he does and has earned all his wins.
“This dude proved time and time again how good he is, and I truly believe a lot of it is due to the hard work, the fight I.Q., and the toughness, the durability that he possesses inside the octagon,” Cormier said. “It does not matter what I feel about Jon Jones in life, I respect him immensely as a fighter. He does a lot of the right things when he’s inside that octagon, and that has led to him having more success than anyone has had.”
After Jon won, he didn’t say much about what he wants to do next. Jon really wants to fight Alex Pereira, the light heavyweight champ, instead of fighting Tom Aspinall for the title. He even said he might stop fighting if he doesn’t get that fight. But Cormier thinks the best fight for Jon right now is the one Jon isn’t excited about, even though Jon might just show everyone how awesome he is again.
“We need to see him fight Tom Aspinall,” Cormier said. “… Aspinall’s big, he’s explosive, and he’s a young interim champion. That seems to be a guy that can give Jon Jones problems, but we’ve thought many, many times that guys would give Jones problems, and none of them have been able to do that.”
It’s super cool how Jon Jones has stayed the best for so long. He’s won against lots of different fighters from different times and changed how he fights each time.
If we think about it, it’s kind of funny how things change. Cormier used to not like Jon at all, but now he’s saying nice things about him. It’s like when two kids who didn’t get along in school become friends on LinkedIn, not best pals, but they respect each other now.
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