Jon Jones admits “great dude” Daniel Cormier’s steroid accusations are getting to him

Yesterday afternoon, light heavyweight rivals Daniel Cormier and Jon Jones spoke on the official UFC 214 media conference call. One of the more interesting moments of this call occurred after Cormier once again suggested Jones had abused steroids throughout his title reign. Though Jones initially ignored this comment, he later went off on Cormier for attacking his character, and claimed that, deep down, Cormier knows he never did steroids.

“This whole thing that we’re going through, it has become an attack on my character,” Jones said (h/t MMAFighting.com). “That’s all this thing is, is an attack on my character. When people ask Daniel what he thinks about me inside the Octagon, he has sh*t to say about me.

“This is the first time I’ve competed against someone who is literally just fighting to prove that I’m a bad guy. F*ck it, call me the bad guy. I’m not fighting to be the good guy. I’ve never had anyone just attack — I mean, look at those interviews, it’s always the same sh*t. Now he’s trying to freaking convince the world that I did steroids. That actually gets to me a little bit, because I think deep down this motherf*cker knows that I wouldn’t do steroids. Come on now, come on now. Being the youngest champion (in UFC history), you mean to tell me I’m smart enough to outsmart f*cking USADA and f*cking the Nevada Athletic Commission for 10 years? But I failed a cocaine test? I’m a mastermind steroid user that beat all these guys for 10 years? He knows in his heart that I didn’t do steroids.”

“This whole thing has become an attack on Jon Jones’ character,” the former champ continued. “I feel like when Daniel loses, he’ll be able to say, ‘well, I’m a f*cking good guy. I’m a good guy and at least people will respect me for a being a good champion when I had that belt in Jon’s absence.’ And I think that he deserves respect because he is a good guy. But you don’t have to sh*t on other people to try to make yourself seem that much, Daniel.

“We see that you’re a good person. We see that you’re a great husband, father, wrestling coach, team captain. I admire a lot of things about you. You’re a f*cking great dude, but you don’t got to f*cking try to convince the world that I did steroids, bro. Just f*cking look yourself in the mirror and say, ‘goddamnit, he’s younger than me, he’s athletic, he beat my ass, and he’s going to do it again.’ Don’t f*cking crush somebody else’s image to make yourself seem more mighty. You’re already a f*cking good dude.”

Jon Jones will challenge Daniel Cormier for the light heavyweight strap this Saturday in Las Vegas, Nevada.

What do you think of these rather candid comments from Jon Jones?

This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 7/25/2017.