Daniel Cormier doesn’t hold the same level of animosity towards Jon Jones now that he did when they were in the midst of one of the nastiest rivalries in UFC history but he’s also not faking the bad blood between just for the cameras.
In an interview addressing their coaching stint on a reality show filmed in Thailand, Jones said that he shared a conversation with Cormier where the UFC Hall of Famer allegedly admitted that he just makes too much money to suddenly put all of the ill will between them behind him.
“One time we were sitting down on the couch together and I said, ‘Isn’t this nice for us to just sit here, no problems, just enjoying the moment?’” Jones told ALF Global. “He goes, ‘Yeah this is nice, but Jon being your enemy has made me too much money over the years. So even though I have no problem with you, when the cameras turn on I can never be your friend in front of people.’”
Cormier released his own response on Wednesday and he says that conversation never happened.
“That didn’t happen,” Cormier said on his YouTube channel. “We did not have that conversation where I sat to him and said ‘when the cameras are rolling you’re my enemy.’ No. He’s just my enemy all the time. It just is what it is. It’s OK.
“As I have told you before, you can go to bed at night with an enemy. You don’t need the happy fairy tale ending. Everybody doesn’t need that. I don’t. I’m a grown man and neither should Jon.”
While Cormier admits that his rivalry with Jones has definitely benefitted them both financially, that doesn’t mean anything has been faked just to make it look good for the cameras.
“That just didn’t happen … this is not a conversation that Jon and I had. It just isn’t,” Cormier said. “It’s just not a conversation we had in regards to ‘hey, have I made a lot of money because Jon Jones and I have been on the wrong side of each other.’ Yes, and so did Muhammad Ali with Joe Frazier and so did Muhammad Ali with George Foreman, and I’m not comparing myself with him, so did Khabib [Nurmagomedov] with Conor McGregor and Conor McGregor with other people.
“You always need a person on the other side in order to make the big dollars. That is not a false thing. Jon and I got big money to go to Thailand. Of course we make money because our rivalry has been what it’s been. But it doesn’t mean it’s fabricated.”
Now retired at 47 years old, Cormier is in a much different place than he was during his competitive career in the UFC. He fully confesses that his disdain for Jones isn’t the same now as it was when they were getting into a brawl in the middle of the MGM Grand lobby in Las Vegas.
But Cormier promises there’s just too much history between him and Jones to ever just let all of that go and suddenly become friends.
“I have told you guys on this show, it’s not what it used to be,” Cormier explained. “We can operate around each other. It’s actually tolerable being in a certain space with Jon Jones without having to feel like we’re going to run at each other and start fighting at every turn. I have said that. I have said that my emotions have quelled in that sense that I don’t feel that burning desire to just kill the guy.
“That doesn’t mean that I’m forgiving all the wrongdoings and all the things that happened over the course of a career or I forget all the things we said, nasty, nasty things about each other. We said nasty things about each other’s families. That stuff doesn’t just go away, unless you’re crazy — and I think Jon’s crazy. That just didn’t happen. We did not have that conversation. But again, you talk here and whoever will listen but it’s like he’s almost lost with burning desire for him and I to have something.”
Cormier seemed genuinely confused why this topic of conversation still gets so much oxygen but as one of the most talked about rivalries in UFC history, it’s almost impossible to ignore.
But if there was any doubt about how Cormier feels towards Jones, he made sure to lay it all out one last time.
“Generally when you get older, you start to dislike people more,” Cormier said. “Because you get a little more cranky. I’m more cranky than I was before. So Jon Jones, I do still hate you and I always will.”
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