Daniel Cormier is trying to make the decision really easy for Jon Jones.
Jones seemingly has two options upon returning to the octagon once his one-year suspension is up in early July: fight Cormier for the UFC light heavyweight championship at UFC 214 on July 29 or agree to a tune-up fight and revisit the much-anticipated rematch with Cormier at a later date.
Cormier apparently would like to eliminate the second option completely, though. He’s been wanting to avenge his UFC 182 loss to Jones — the only defeat of his UFC career — for a while now, and it sounds like he’s tired of waiting.
“Take the fight with me, Jon Jones,” Cormier said Wednesday on “UFC Tonight,” according to MMAFighting.com. “There’re no tune-up fights in the UFC. If you’re a guy that has dominated the division as he has, why not come back and try to get your title? Come meet your boy, D.C.; come get this money. Let’s get money together and give the people in Anaheim a show. No tune-up for Jon Jones. He gets to come and get beat by me this time.
“We’re fighting right now or he doesn’t get to fight me. It’s my rules, I’m the champ now. The guy we saw against Ovince Saint Preux is the new USADA-regulated Jon Jones. Yes, I will beat him up July 29.”
Jones defeated Cormier in their first matchup in January 2015, and they were scheduled to fight again at UFC 200 to unify the UFC light heavyweight title after Jones beat Saint Preux at UFC 197 last April. Jones was forced to withdraw from the UFC 200 bout following a failed drug test, though, and he later was handed a one-year suspension and stripped of his title for the second time.
In other words, this rematch has been a long time coming.
Thumbnail photo via Jayne Kamin-Oncea/USA TODAY Sports Images
