UFC Hall of Famer Daniel Cormier’s longstanding rivalry with Jon Jones continues to add new chapters.
UFC heavyweight champion Jon Jones is potentially weeks away from returning to the Octagon against interim titleholder Tom Aspinall in one of the biggest fights of 2025. But as the wait continues for Jones’s return to the cage, one of his former rivals shared a never-before-told story from the apex of their all-time UFC feud.
Jones and Daniel Cormier battled twice in their legendary careers, with Jones getting the better of Cormier in both encounters. But Jones’s second win over Cormier was later ruled a no-contest after failing a USADA drug test.
Years later, with Cormier at the UFC broadcast desk and Jones still competing, tensions remain strong between the two bitter rivals.
Daniel Cormier shares new story from Jon Jones UFC rivalry
In the buildup to their two UFC clashes, Cormier repeatedly questioned Jones’s character after numerous setbacks outside of the cage. Legal and personal issues derailed parts of Jones’s prime, and Cormier feasted at the opportunity to exploit his UFC rival as a lost cause.
During a pre-fight face-to-face interview ahead of their scheduled bout at UFC 200, Cormier hinted at Jones’s publicist ‘fighting a losing battle’, a shot at Jones’s struggles with substance abuse and other infractions.
In a recent episode of Good Guy/Bad Guy with Chael Sonnen, Cormier shared how a conversation with Jones’s publicist nearly set off his longtime rival.
“One time Jon and I were arguing, and I looked at his publicist and I pointed to her. ‘You have the worst job in history, I feel sorry for you! I feel sorry you’re tasked with trying to keep this psychopath under control!” Cormier said. “And [Jon] was sitting there, so mad at me. The one thing about Jon, Jon isn’t the best with his words…he just wanted to kill me.
“I could see it, in his mind, if he had a gun, he would shoot me. It was bad! Poor gal.”
Jones and Cormier’s feud appeared to take a cordial turn in recent years after pre-fight media exchanges between the two former rivals. Cormier interviewed Jones during the UFC 309 weigh-in show, prompting a strong response from the UFC fanbase.
Daniel Cormier and controversial UFC star jabbed Jon Jones at WrestleMania
UFC welterweight star Colby Covington recently used Cormier to jab Jones in an Instagram post. As Covington and Cormier attended WWE’s WrestleMania last weekend in Las Vegas, Covington called Cormier, and not Jones, the UFC GOAT.
Cormier has repeatedly excluded Jones from the UFC GOAT debate in favor of Khabib Nurmagomedov and other legendary names.
Despite some tension remaining between Cormier and Jones, that hasn’t stopped Cormier from surprisingly defending Jones during various moments in the latter’s career. This includes after a bizarre Instagram live session by Jones went viral, in which he mumbled about wanting to ‘kill’ someone.
Cormier and Jones will likely never become friends, but their bitter feud in the UFC Octagon is in the past. But the two legends will always be linked for one of the biggest rivalries in combat sports history.
