Jon Jones and Daniel Cormier carried their rivalry into Thailand while filming a reality show built around active fighters. Jones asked Cormier for a wrestling match, Cormier refused, and the exchange quickly turned personal. It followed the same project that already produced a tense faceoff between the two former UFC champions.
Cormier shut the idea down immediately.
“No, I’m not grappling you,” he told Jones, then added, “Money. More money.” Jones answered by calling him a “little crybaby bitch.” Cormier fired back with “This guy’s in love with me. He wants to touch me. He wants to touch me, he’s in love with me.”
The disagreement was about wrestling, not MMA, and that distinction matters. Cormier was an NCAA Division I All-American at Oklahoma State and made two U.S. Olympic teams in freestyle wrestling before his UFC run. Jones wrestled in junior college and later built his résumé in MMA, where he beat Cormier twice, although the second result was changed to a no contest after Jones failed a drug test. That is why a wrestling match remains a different argument from another cage fight, and it fits with Cormier previously discussing a possible grappling match.
The rivalry stayed focused on wrestling once the action started
The back-and-forth did not end with the first insults. Cormier started yelling that one of his Russian fighters would deal with Jones instead. “I’m killing him in wrestling,” Cormier said. “Look at his stance!” He was making a technical point as much as a personal one.
Moments later, that fighter got in on Jones’ lead leg and finished a takedown. That sequence gave Cormier something concrete to point to. He has long argued that a pure wrestling setting favors him more than an MMA fight would, and this clip fed that point directly. It also fits with recent talk about a possible Jones-Cormier grappling match and Jones saying after the show that the two still see each other as enemies.
Right now both men are working more as personalities than active title contenders. Cormier remains one of the UFC’s main broadcast analysts, while Jones is still tied to the sport’s biggest headlines even outside regular competition. Put them together on a set, and the old rivalry still takes over fast.
Watch the clip below:
Daniel Cormier refused to wrestle Jon Jones after he called him a “little crybaby b*tch” 👀😬
“You’re in love with me, you just wanna touch me. You’ve touched me enough in your life. You will never put your hands on me.” pic.twitter.com/iyAd1Cd1gu
— Happy Punch (@HappyPunch) April 9, 2026
This latest exchange did not add anything soft or nostalgic to their history. It stayed in the same lane their rivalry has lived in for years, personal, competitive, and easy to restart the second they share a room.
