Daniel Cormier has launched a passionate defense of his teammate Islam Makhachev in the midst of calls to him to be stripped of his title.
The lightweight champion is friends with Cormier since he started training in his early UFC career at AKA and has become a record title holder. He has defended the 155LB -Riem more than any other hunter in history, breaking a record in BJ Penn's reign.
However, there have been phone calls to get rid of his title because of his lack of interest in encountering Ilia Topuria, who came up of featherweight to challenge gold in lightweight. He prefers to be confronted with a competition with a victory at the weight, or go up to challenge 170 pounds when Belal Muhammad lose his belt.
Daniel Cormier Slams Jon Jones while defending Islam Makhachev
Daniel Cormier is not enthusiastic about the idea that Islam Makhachev is being stripped, especially given his activity as a champion. He noted that the hypocrisy of asking the lightweight champion to fight so regularly, since Jon Jones as a heavyweight champion is allowed to fight for a year and a half, or not at all.
Jones is supposedly due to the face of Tom Aspinall, but that fight has never felt further away than it is now. And Cormier, talking with Chael Sonnen about their good guy/bad guy ESPN show explained that Jones “holds on to the belt and not really does something”, which he noticed “strange”.
“Do you know what is annoying me?” He went on. “Islam Makhachev said:” I don't really want to fight Ilia Topuria because he is a 145-ponderer and I did that. Give me someone else. “People say,” Take the belt away from him, he must be stripped. ”
“People are like” it's a comic or defense for Makhachev. ” Why? In the past two years he fought people, he fought Dustin, he again fought people and fought Micano. He fought them all, he fought four times. At that time, the heavyweight champion once fought. “
Daniel Cormier and Jon Jones had a bitter feud during their heyday
When Cormier was a hunter, he won all newcomers during his career apart from one; Jon Jones. Although he lost twice to steal Miocic at the end of his run, he also spread the legendary heavyweight to end his iconic title line, but he never succeeded in getting the leap on Jones.
Over the years, Cormier and Jones shared one of the most bitter feud in the history of sport about the title with light heavyweight. Between drug test errors and other cancellations, they managed to print two in two fights from five official bookings, with one result being destroyed.
Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC
The first time Jones won a dominant decision at UFC 182. He went better and dismissed Cormier at UFC 214 with a big main kick, but that result is now not a match after he had failed a drug test, which had failed his second time after their UFC 200 main event was canceled for a positive test.
As a result of that lack of a definitive end to their feud, Cormier and Jones have never really been able to split it. They remain somewhat respectful after the fact, but there is always an atmosphere of discomfort between the couple.