Daniel Cormier thinks ‘it would be good’ for Jon Jones to fight him again

Since Jon Jones and his rival Daniel Cormier first fought in 2015, the two have had two very different stories unfold before them.

For Jones, he ran into several troubles in and out of the Octagon when it pertained to legal issues as well as banned substance issues.

Cormier, on the other hand, went on to take over in Jones’ absence as the king of light heavyweights and eventually the heavyweights. Which is the division he originally made his name in.

Now that Jones is officially back and the light heavyweight champion once again while Cormier is the heavyweight champ, a third and final fight between the two seems like a must in several ways.

But Cormier feels like it would be more meaningful for Jones to get the fight rather than himself despite being 0-1 (1 NC) against him.

“For what I’ve done, winning the heavyweight title, everything was so tied to him initially that me getting the heavyweight title was something so completely separate, especially being that I was undefeated in the weight class prior,” Cormier told UFC.com. “Going up into a weight that was always thought to be my weight class, winning the UFC title, it helped me. I think for Jones to truly get back everything that he’s lost, it would be good for him and I to fight again. For me, I’ve established my career outside of him. He’s done things outside of me, too, but for him, it would be good if he got to fight me again.”

Even if he doesn’t have an official win over Jones, he does have one in the UFC’s official rankings discussions as Cormier sits atop the pound-4-pound list. Something Jones doesn’t agree with.

“It feels great,” Cormier admits. “Even when they keep releasing the pound-for-pound rankings and I’m ranked above him and he goes, ‘That’s BS,’ absolutely not. You are a great fighter, but you’re a great fighter at the weight class you’ve always stayed at. I’ve done it in multiple weight classes and pound-for-pound says it’s a fighting style that translates across weight classes, and I’ve been the champion in two of them. So I think I am the definition of pound-for-pound.”

Whether or not the pair will fight once more remains to be seen. What we do know for sure is that Jones is expected to defend his crown against Anthony Smith at UFC 235 on March 3 while Cormier plans to retire at the end of that month.

This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 1/29/2019