The devil must be feeling mighty chilly right now, as former UFC double champ Daniel Cormier has come out in support of Jon Jones fighting on the UFC’s White House card next year.
Bitter rivals for years, Cormier and Jones rarely see eye to eye on anything, especially after “Bones” tested positive for performance enhancing drugs following the duo’s second encounter in the octagon in 2017. That resulted in a head kick KO for Jones at UFC 214 being overturned to a No Contest, and Cormier retaining his light heavywieght title as a result.
It’s quite the shock to hear Cormier, now a UFC broadcaster and analyst, appeal to boss Dana White to let Jones fight on next summer’s spectacle, after White publicly stated that Jones was simply not reliable enough to be involved.
“I think that I would let him fight,” Cormier said via his YouTube channel recently, addressing the matter. Despite announcing his retirement over the summer, Jones returned to the drug testing pool specifically with the White House card in mind. “I think if he wants to fight, I would let him fight because for as much as mixed martial arts is a global sport, and it’s a sport that everybody loves, we support people from all around the world but at the end of the day we’re fighting at the White House. You want American people that can win at the end of the night.
Cormier drew a comparison to Noche UFC, the annual event celebrating Mexican independence. “Noche UFC last weekend had six Mexican-born fighters, they won all six fights. They had three American fighters of Mexican descent and they all won. It felt good for the people leaving the arena that night because the people they went to support had all found success. Imagine if we’re on the White House lawn and the Americans aren’t winning fights. That can happen.”
Thus far, Dana White has be open to Conor McGregor fighting on the card, but not Jones. Perhaps Cormier can change the UFC CEO and President’s mind.
