Daniel Cormier argues Jon Jones should win the Comeback Player of the Year and not the ESPN Player of the Year award.
Legendary mixed martial artist Jon Jones, widely regarded as the greatest fighter of all time in UFC, made his comeback after a three-year hiatus against Ciryl Gane at UFC 285 three months ago. The former light heavyweight king showed no signs of ring rust as he handily dispatched Gane in the opening round to become the heavyweight champion.
The dominant win put Jones at the top of the UFC pound-for-pound list and earned him a nomination for the ESPN Player of the Year award. However, not everyone seems to agree with the outcome.
Daniel Cormier doubles down on stance Jon Jones shouldn’t win ESPN Player of the Year
In a recent YouTube video, Daniel Cormier explained why Jon Jones should not be in the running for the ESPN Player of the Year honor.
“I didn’t sh** on Jon Jones in this one. I didn’t,” said Cormier. “I think that when I talk about him, I talk about him in the most fair way I can because I do respect his skill level and he showed great form in that return to heavyweight.
“When I gave my opinion on him not being there, my reasons were because of the one fight… the basis of my argument is that he only fought once. These are the type of topics that I love because then we could talk about them… I agree it was a massive accomplishment that he did to come back. But does it make you Fighter of the Year? To me, it would seem to need more than just one performance. It would need to deal with adversity, overcome it, and still get the job done.”
Cormier argued the other nominees did more to win the prize over Jones.
“Example, Leon Edwards losing over the course of 24 minutes and 30 seconds and then knocking out Kamaru Usman to become the welterweight champion of the world. Islam Makhachev having a very tough fight against Alex Volkanovski. Amanda Nunes getting beat by Julianna Pena, come back and defeating her in dominant fashion. That’s what I feel. Israel Adesanya, losing his belt and winning it right back with one of the greatest knockouts you’ve ever seen.”
Cormier suggested Jones could win Comeback of the Year
‘DC’ made the case for ‘Bones’ being the frontrunner for the ESPN Comeback of the Year award instead.
“I just wanted to see more but I did say I thought that he should win the comeback athlete of the year because if I look at the nominees for the award, I’m pretty sure I can make a case why what Jon Jones did is as good if not better than everything those other athletes did on that list.”
Jon Jones is currently unbooked for his next outing. He has been linked to a showdown with former UFC heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic for later this year but no concrete developments have happened yet.
