Immediately after his return from a lengthy suspension, Jon Jones was able to reclaim the UFC light heavyweight title last December at UFC 232. And now that he is back on track, many expect him to remain on top for a long time.
One of them is long-time bitter rival Daniel Cormier, who is expecting Anthony Smith to lose to Jones in their 205-pound title clash at UFC 235 in March.
“Anthony Smith is a great guy but being a great guy doesn’t win you fights,” Cormier told MMAWeekly. “I think he loses to Jones. He won that Volkan [Oezdemir] fight but to struggle that much, it’s very difficult for me because it’s going to make me say something that sounds negative about these guys but I’ve been in there with Volkan and I know that although he’s a good martial artist, there are just holes in the game that make the fight not that hard or as hard as some other fights are.
“He struggled mightily with the man and that was enough to tell me he was going to struggle when he got to the best light heavyweights and now he’s facing the best light heavyweight. I think he’s going to have a tough time.”
Cormier did drop some names of potential fighters whom he sees giving Jones a challenge eventually, but as of the moment, he sees nobody besides himself.
“The only person at the weight class to challenge him is me but there’s the young kid from Brazil [Johnny Walker], who over time could be tough,” he said. “Dominick Reyes, with time he’ll be real good.”
“Outside of [Alexander] Gustafsson, everybody else I finished on my title reign. I finished Volkan [Oezdemir], I finished “Rumble” [Anthony Johnson] twice. I finished everybody. I just think that we’re competing on a different level than a lot of these other dudes.
“And I don’t like saying that because it sounds like I’m disrespecting these guys but I feel like we’re competing on a different level than these other guys.”
Cormier is currently healing up from a back injury, and has not made a commitment about his return date. But he is likely postponing his retirement plans, which he intended for his 40th birthday on March 20th.