Daniel Cormier desires folks to carry their horses with regards to evaluating Jon Jones to all-time greats from different sports activities.
Particularly, Cormier took umbrage with the suggestion that Jones could have a legacy as long-lasting as NBA legend Michael Jordan. A six-time NBA champion and five-time MVP, Jordan is extensively considered the very best basketball participant to ever stroll the Earth.
Jones is held in comparable regard by the MMA group, having reigned atop the sunshine heavyweight division from 2011 to 2020 (his runs halted solely by outside-of-the-cage authorized points in addition to failed drug checks in 2016 and 2017), and he by no means suffered a loss in 29 professional bouts outdoors of a disqualification to Matt Hamill. In his most up-to-date struggle, he captured the UFC heavyweight title with a one-sided submission win over Ciryl Gane.
The Jones-Jordan comparability got here up throughout Cormier’s latest look on the Pound 4 Pound podcast when host Kamaru Usman instructed that it isn’t loopy to think about Jones the Jordan of MMA. Cormier vehemently disagreed.
“You achieved with the interview?” Cormier mentioned, jokingly. “Do you simply need to be achieved? What? … So Jon Jones is the Michael Jordan and LeBron James of MMA? You’re going to take a seat up right here, actual life, one, two, three, 4, 5 cameras… Jon Jones, to me, if I’m speaking a few soccer or basketball equal. Jon Jones, once I’m in search of a sports activities [comparison], is a man who has achieved a lot, however due to all the opposite stuff, it’s arduous to place him in that rarified air.
“If Michael Jordan was doing unlawful stuff, we don’t find out about it, I can’t decide him. Georges St-Pierre, can’t decide him. I do know of the opposite stuff, so it’s arduous for me to say this man’s simply sitting up there. Michael Jordan obtained achieved taking part in basketball in 1996 and folks nonetheless don’t need to say any individual’s higher. There shall be an individual that comes alongside that folks will say replaces Jon Jones as the best of all-time. He has not left such a legacy that it doesn’t really feel prefer it’s [never] going to be toppled. Jordan left a legacy that now we have seen LeBron James do what he do, we’ve seen Kobe [Bryant] do what he do, now we have seen these nice gamers and so they’re nonetheless unwilling to say they’re higher.”
Except for Jones’ well-documented transgressions, which Cormier has long maintained are impossible to overlook when discussing his legacy, the UFC Corridor of Famer simply doesn’t imagine that Jones has achieved sufficient to make an unassailable case to be thought-about the GOAT. “DC” is a two-division champion himself having held the heavyweight and—as a beneficiary of Jones’ suspensions—the sunshine heavyweight title.
Up subsequent for Jones, he defends the heavyweight title towards Stipe Miocic at UFC 309 on Nov. 16 at Madison Sq. Backyard in New York. Shedding to Jones twice (the second bout overturned to a no-contest when Jones examined optimistic for a banned substance, Cormier takes nothing away from his longtime rival’s skill to step up in large recreation conditions.
“I feel that’s what he does,” Cormier mentioned. “The larger the problem, the higher he prepares. In order that lends this query: Individuals see to be wanting previous Stipe. Everyone’s wanting previous Stipe, so will he not prepare himself as arduous? As a result of if he appears previous Stipe, Stipe’s a nasty boy. Stipe Miocic is a nasty boy.
“He hits arduous. He’s not sluggish. He can wrestle. He’s obtained good cardio, and Stipe’s not a quitter. That’s going to be a harder struggle for Jon Jones than folks even think about.”
And as a lot as Jones has been criticized for sticking with the UFC’s plan for him to struggle Miocic versus pushing for a struggle with interim champion Tom Aspinall, Cormier isn’t utilizing that as a purpose to downgrade Jones’ in-cage acumen.
“He’s a lot smarter than folks give him credit score for and he’s powerful,” Cormier mentioned. “He’s manner harder than folks give him credit score for.”
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