Daniel Cormier Reacts To Jon Jones’ USADA Violation
Light heavyweight titans Daniel Cormier and Jon Jones were scheduled to finally settle the score on their long-time rivalry in just a few days, as “DC” was set to put his 205-pound strap on the line against the ex-champion in Jones in the main event of this weekend’s (Sat., July 9, 2016) UFC 200 from Las Vegas, Nevada.
The two first did battle in January 2015 with Jones defending his then held title via unanimous decision. Later that year, however, he found himself in legal trouble and the UFC was forced to strip him of his title, giving Cormier the opportunity to seize the vacant throne at UFC 187.
Nearly a year and a half later, we had planned on seeing the two greats meet again, but after all of the waiting, the highly-anticipated fight has fell apart right in front of our eyes just days before it was set to take place.
Unfortunate news broke earlier this evening (July 7, 2016) indicating that “Bones” had been informed by USADA (United States Anti-Doping Agency) of a potential anti-doping violation. As a result, UFC President Dana White had announced that Jones was being pulled from the card.
In the midst of the madness, all of the attention is surrounding Jones, but Cormier has also been hit with terrible news. The former Olympian has made it clear that he wants nothing more than to topple his bitter rival, and not only will he not get the chance to do that, but he’ll also likely miss out on a huge payday unless the promotion can somehow find him another fight.
Clearly affected by the situation, Cormier didn’t exactly know how to react:
“I’m very disappointed. I worked really hard for this,” Cormier said on Wednesday night, according to MMAFighting.com. “I don’t know exactly how to explain how I’m feeling right now.”
“DC” also expressed his interest in staying on the card, claiming that he’s open to fighting anyone that would accept:
“I’ve trained hard and long, Cormier said. “If anyone would fight, I would fight. Why not?”
The champion has long been one to take shots at Jones for his mistakes, but at this time, “DC” said that he wasn’t here to judge:
“I’m not the moral police.”
