EXCLUSIVE | Coach Javier Mendez will support Daniel Cormier “100%” if he pursues Jones rematch

Last week, former UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones stated that he hopes to fight his arch rival Daniel Cormier twice more before they both hang up the gloves for good. In the opinion of Daniel Cormier’s head coach Javier Mendez, however, Cormier does not need to fight Jones again. Having captured the light heavyweight and heavyweight titles, his legacy is already secure — even without settling his score with Jones.

“For me, he doesn’t ever need to fight him,” Mendez said on a recent episode of BJPENN.COM Radio. “It’s one of those things that it is what it is, you know? Unfortunately for Jones, he’s got two [failed drug tests] that are going against him that forever will haunt him. But [whether] that’s his doing or not doing, it doesn’t matter to me. What matters to me is, it is what it is. Daniel, if Daniel feels he needs to have another one with him, then that’s on Daniel. I’ll back him 100 percent. I’m gonna always be on my fighter’s side. So whatever my fighter wants to do, I’m going to be with them, but right now as far as I know, he’s planning one light heavyweight title defense and then Brock Lesnar and then calling it quits.

“Now if he decides that there’s a third fight looming with Jon somewhere down the line, that’s between DC and the UFC,” he continued. “But whatever he decides, if that is the case, then I will be 100 percent behind them and I would want it for him because that’s what he wants. But if he doesn’t want it, I don’t want it either.”

Do you want to see Daniel Cormier and Jon Jones fight again, or do you share Javier Mendez’s opinion that a rematch isn’t necessary?

This article first appeared on BJPENN.COM on 9/5/2018.