Cormier and Gustafsson Tire of Jon Jones Talk Ahead of UFC 192

You have to sympathize with light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier. Even before capturing his title at UFC 187, the former Olympian was forced to engage in a familiar pitter-patter regarding former opponent and former champion Jon Jones. After his sound dispatch of Anthony Johnson, Cormier was nearly immediately reminded of his sole professional loss at the hands of ‘Bones’. Even now, in the lead-up to his first title defense against Alexander ‘The Mauler’ Gustafsson, the song remains the same for Cormier.

One man that will completely understand the champion’s circumstances is the Swedish contender. A fixture at the top of the 205 lbs for a number of years, Gustafsson has become infamous after pushing Jones further than any of his other previous opponents, in a bout that many feel he should have taken on the judges’ scorecards. While his performance against Jones is one of the many reasons why he is held in such high regard, Gustafsson admitted that he has grown “tired of hearing” about his furious five rounds with a man who many consider the greatest MMA proponent of all time.

When the subject of the suspended former light heavyweight champion first came up on the UFC 192 conference call, Gustafsson quickly dismissed the question claiming that he has “new missions” that concern him far more than Jones.

“No, no, I don’t even think about our fight no more,” he said. “You know I’m tired of hearing that fight too. So I got new goals. I got new missions in front of me. And that’s all I’m having in my mind right now.”

Gusty threw water on the conversation when it came up again, maintaining that it is Cormier he is focused on, understandably, ahead of their championship meeting on Saturday night.

“Well, I don’t even think about Jon Jones right now. It’s just about the next fight. It’s just about DC for me right now and he’s the champion of the world in our division. And that’s my goal. So that’s all I’m thinking about. I don’t even like thinking about Jon Jones or that situation. It’s just DC right now; nothing else for me.”

Photo by Josh Hedges/Zuffa LLC

Cormier’s frustration was obvious when he was asked about Jones for the fourth time during the media conference. As far as the defending champion is concerned, he is ready for whoever the UFC want to put in front of him, but he doesn’t understand why Jones is still brought up in the title conversation as “he’s disqualified himself from the competition.”

Cormier said: “The thing that’s really fucked up is that we live our day-to-day lives normal. And we don’t worry about Jones. But you guys will ask us questions about this guy and then the headline will make it sound as though I’m over here stewing about Jon Jones. I could really care – I could really give a shit about Jon Jones. I care about beating Alexander Gustafsson.

“And then if Jones is the next guy, Jones is the next guy. If it’s Evans, if it’s Bader, it doesn’t matter who the next guy is. But it’s hard to really answer these questions about this guy and allow him to actually just sit and continue to almost reign over this division when he’s disqualified himself from competition because you guys continue to ask us questions about him.

“My day-to-day life does not involve worrying about Jon Jones. I worry about Alexander Gustafsson, defending my championship, then it’s just on to the next one. Line them up and whoever the name is at the end of the row, is who I’m going to fight. Jones right now, he’s disqualified himself from the competition.”

Although their annoyance during the media call was quite evident it did lead to one of the best interactions between the main event duo as Cormier urged Gustafsson to “tell them (the media) that your greatest performance was not a loss.”

“Alex, Alex, Alex just tell them. Just tell them Alex. Your greatest performance was not a loss,” boomed the champion. “Tell them about your big wins. Alex, tell them that your greatest performance was not a loss. Tell them. Then they can stop asking you that and stop pretending that.”

“Tell them that your greatest performance, the time that you walked out of the Octagon, was not after that loss to Jon Jones. You felt better walking out another time where you thought you accomplished more. Tell them Alex.”

Gustafsson took the ball and ran with it, insisting that his best performance would be when he meets Cormier.

“Yeah, yeah, of course, but my biggest accomplishment’s going to be on 3rd of October, my friend. That’s going to be my biggest accomplishment,” he said.

While we can understand Cormier and Gustafsson’s frustration with the topic, you can’t blame media members for asking about Jones given the controversy that surrounds the former champion. Jones has disappeared from the public eye since his much-publicized car crash back in April. Having been suspended from UFC action, reports of his return to training have garnered a lot of attention and it feels like the division is constantly forced to countdown to the reemergence of ‘Bones.’

Today’s news that Jones will avoid jail sentence was followed quickly by a statement from UFC that cited “Jones’ possible reinstatement to return to competition” and that will certainly not help the championship pairing. It seems whatever happens in the Octagon on Saturday night will only generate more questions about the champion. Furthermore, the only real way of stopping the constant questions about Jon Jones is for both men to avenge their losses to him, and even then, there could always be a rematch.