A dejected Daniel Cormier stands inside the octagon with a look of sheer disbelief painted across his face as Dana White places the belt Cormier so desperately wanted around he waist of a man who had become Cormier’s most bitter rival.
In the build up to the monumental match-up between champion Jon Jones and Daniel Cormier, two questions seemed to have regularly reoccurred amongst media members; the first was whether Cormier could close the distance on his rangy foe, and second, would Cormier’s gas tank last him the whole five rounds. Cormier passed both tests with flying colours. However, it was not enough.
Jon Jones’ ability to shock is unparalleled; the fact that a man who quit wrestling at the junior college level managed to out-wrestle an Olympian not only baffles fans and pundits, but is a testament to his ability to dig in deep when it’s needed. When momentum had shifted toward DC, the takedowns that Jones completed began to turn the tide for the champion.
Cormier went days without watching the fight but when he finally sat down to see just how close he was to beating the champ he was left with one resounding though, “I can beat that man.”
In an exclusive interview with Bleacher Report Daniel Cormier reflected on the night that he almost became a champion.
“Jon won that fight. But after the fight, I have no doubt in my mind that I can beat that man. Nothing has changed. If we fought again, I feel like I will be even more confident that I can get the job done, he did not beat me. He won the fight. He did not beat me up, and I did not beat him up. We were in a very competitive, hard fight. And if anyone believes that it was anything different, go back and watch it again and you’ll feel a little different after watching it.”
When it came down to the intricacies of battle, Cormier was particularly surprised by one thing and that was Jon Jones’ deceptively powerful punching ability.
“He hit me with a punch early. It was either a left hook or a superman punch-type left hand. And I was like, ‘That was a lot harder than I expected,I didn’t expect him to hit that hard. But he hits pretty hard. It didn’t hurt me, but I actually felt it more than I thought I would.”
Following the fight, it was announced that Jon Jones had failed a pre-fight screening for cocaine metabolites, and after a short stint in rehab, Jones has agreed to fight Anthony Johnson at UFC 187.