The bad blood between Jon Jones and Daniel Cormier is no secret and we now know that after a year and a half the two still can’t stand each other.
Jon Jones has regained control of his social media platforms which he’s strategically used to drop a few subliminal messages to Daniel Cormier (Drake style). A few days ago Jones randomly posted this message on Twitter:
The reigning UFC light heavyweight champion, Daniel Cormier, wasn’t going to let those comments go unnoticed.
This is exactly what the UFC dreamt of when they paired these two against each other in 2014. They didn’t want a one-off fight, it had the makings of one of the best rivalries in MMA history and all signs point toward that coming to fruition.
The last time we saw these two square off in the octagon DC was gassed early, which led to Jon Jones sonning (slang term that means putting his hand on DC’s head like a kid) him up against the cage and DC crying in the arms of teammate Cain Velasquez.
Since then Jon Jones has been suspended from the UFC and stripped of his title due to a hit & run incident. Cormier has bounced back to claim the UFC belt in a stoppage of Rumble Johnson and defended that title last month against Alexander Gustafsson. It’s hard not to call DC the “real champion” when he’s defeated two of the toughest fighters in the UFC, regardless of weight class.
Jones has since resolved his hit & run case, he received probation for his offense, and has begun training for his return to the octagon. Dana White has said multiple times that Jon will receive an immediate title shot upon his return from suspension but has never given a date for the end point of the suspension.
I suspect that the UFC would like Jones to serve a year-long suspension, which means he’d be cleared on April 28th, 2016. At that time Jones could begin a full 6 week training camp/promotional tour in preparation for his rematch with Cormier. That rematch would set up perfectly for UFC 200 on July 9th.
A possible trio of Jon Jones, Conor McGregor and Ronda Rousey would shatter the previous PPV record set by UFC 100 with Brock Lesnar. Dana White is always forward thinking and I believe that he sees the mega-potential of having these two headline the historic event.