Daniel Cormier: Why The Hell Is Jon Jones Still Interim Champ?
Daniel Cormier vs. Jon Jones has been booked four times, but it’s only happened once for a variety of one unfortunate sets of circumstances or another, many of which have to do with Jones’ sad string of baffling troubles which seem to be building on one another.
That’s left current champion Cormier angling for a bout with Anthony “Rumble” Johnson, the man whom he beat to originally win the the title at UFC 187 after Jones was arrested for fleeing the scene after hitting a 25-year-old pregnant woman and breaking her arm. “Rumble” has since won three straight bouts by dominating knockout, yet UFC President Dana White recently teased a potential fight between him and Jones.
After he was removed from the main event of UFC 200 and temporarily suspended by USADA for testing positive for estrogen blocker clomiphene and aromatase inhibitor Letrozole metabolites, Jones has recently teased he’d be back sooner than later, and rumors have suggested he only got flagged because he was on Cialis. Even if he does get off and is able to fight, however, Cormier doesn’t want to be scheduled to fight Jones.
He told Brian Stann on SiriusXM (via MMA Fighting) that he can’t believe Jones is still the interim champ, and is adamant any Jones vs. Johnson bout should not be for the interim title because he is healthy:
“Now one thing I completely disagree with, completely – and I don’t care who hears it – why in the hell would Jon still be the interim champion? That makes no sense. That makes absolutely no sense. They should not be fighting for an interim championship. That makes no sense at all. I don’t even know why he would still be the interim champion. His ass was disqualified. Take that freakin’ belt off of him. That’s stupid.
“I hope to God Dana misspoke, because that makes absolutely no sense. They aren’t fighting for some interim title if they fight. They can fight in the main event because it’s a big fight but it’s a fun fight. If they fight, they fight to determine the number one contender it’s not some interim championship fight. That makes no sense at all…You’d have an interim champion defending the interim championship while the actual champion is actually still there. That makes no sense whatsoever.”
Hard to argue against the common sense of that statement, but the UFC has already seen one interim title bout take place this year while Conor McGregor was engrossed in his feud with Nate Diaz. Cormier admitted he needed at least 10-12 weeks to prepare for his next fight, so that put any hope for a true light heavyweight title bout in 2016 on hold.
Jones would still most likely be suspended for the rest of the year even if he does get off with the tainted supplement defense, as fighters like Yoel Romero and Tim Means both received six-month sits for the same.
“DC” and “Rumble” have both agreed that Jones should have to work his way back up, but there will always be those who argue Jones never lost the belt and should therefore always have a clear shot at it until he loses. Which side are you on?
