As Daniel Cormier prepares to challenge Jon Jones for the UFC light heavyweight title at UFC 182 on January 3, his training partner Luke Rockhold is instead talking about a hypothetical Jones bout against injured heavyweight champ Cain Velasquez.
MMA Fighting got the quotes.
When asked if Jon Jones could hang with Velasquez, Rockhold answered, “not a chance.”
“Cain, just the storm that he can put on you, you can’t stop it. I’ve trained with the guy, I’ve sparred with him so many times, and when he wants to get after you, he’s going to get after you. You can only run away so long. Jon Jones doesn’t have the style to keep him off him. Cain is just a beast, he’ll bull his way right through him.”
The questions about the potential super fight followed Jones comments at last week’s “The Time Is Now” presser.
“[After] those two fights, I would consider the division clear, and that’s when I would start to entertain superfights,” said Jones. “Superfights I would go for. I’ve been training with heavyweights for years now. I know what it feels like, and I think I would do really good against them. So that would be the next chapter.”
One has to think that Jones’ musing about “clearing out the division” and moving on up to the big superfights at heavyweight don’t sit well with undefeated challenger Daniel Cormier.