We’re just one week away from Jon Jones and Daniel Cormier locking horns again, this time in the UFC 200 main event. This championship unification bout will see Cormier come in as the defending champion, with Jones as the interim champion. Jones beat Cormier by unanimous decision at UFC 182, which marked the end of Jones’ reign with the light heavyweight title wrapped around his waist, as his hit-and-run collision saw him stripped of the title, which Cormier captured in May 2015.
Very recently, Cormier called out Jones for his lack of punching power, but on the UFC Unfiltered podcast earlier this week, Jones answered back with his own put-downs of DC’s punches. (Transcription via MMA Fighting)
“The funny thing about him saying that is, Daniel Cormier doesn’t punch hard,” Jones said. “I think the only person I can recall him knocking out is ‘Bigfoot’ Silva. I’m not trying to offend ‘Bigfoot’ Silva but, I mean, he’s not known to have the strongest chin in the game. So, you name anybody else who he knocked out with one punch and walked away, I don’t think I’ve seen it.”
Cormier was able to tag Jones several times throughout their first matchup, but Jones was never noticeably wobbled and didn’t suffer even a flash knockdown. Conversely, Cormier, who was dropped by both Alexander Gustafsson and Anthony Johnson, wasn’t planted on the canvas by any strike Jones landed. That said, Jones landed more throughout their fight, and connected with multiple body punches and kicks, which Jon noted during the UFC Unfiltered interview.
“In my fight with Daniel Cormier, he always talks about how I was working his body and I kicked him in the ribs and I kneed him in the ribs, and these body shots that really sent a shockwave going through his body,” Jones said. “But at no point in the fight did one of his punches do anything to me, or kicks. At no point in the fight did he get me to bleed. At no point in the fight did he get me to lose my breath or to look up at the clock out of frustration. At no point did he wobble me with a punch. I mean, Daniel Cormier caught me with like 60 uppercuts in that fight, and I’m exaggerating. Not one of those uppercuts did anything to me.
“Never made me stumble. None of his kicks made me back up or stop moving forward. So, he’s trying paint this picture of me not being a powerful guy, but I kicked his ass. And I actually hurt him with strikes, where he did nothing to me. I’ve heard him in interviews say that he’s going to walk me down and take me down right away because obviously I don’t have the stopping power to stop him from walking forward. But the reality is, if I wanted to go out there and walk him down, take him down for the sixth time, he doesn’t have the stopping power to stop me.”
It obviously must be noted that even through facing the likes of Cormier, Shogun, Rampage, Machida, Evans, Gustafsson, and others, Jones has never been knocked down in his illustrious career. Only Gustafsson really had Jones in considerable trouble on the feet, but a bloodied Jones was able to stay upright and turn things around on his way to a unanimous decision win.
We’ll see if anything changes in the highly anticipated Cormier vs. Jones rematch on Saturday, July 9th at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
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