Getty Daniel Cormier & Jon Jones
Former two-weight UFC champion Daniel Cormier is happily retired, meaning he won’t be pursuing vengeance against Jon Jones inside the Octagon.
Cormier retired in 2020 after dropping a unanimous decision to Stipe Miocic for the heavyweight title at UFC 252. The ex-heavyweight and light heavyweight king walked away from the sport as one of only four UFC combatants to ever hold two divisional titles simultaneously, while also boasting a professional mixed martial arts record of 22-3 with one no contest.
“DC” and Jones competed twice at 205 pounds. In their first meeting, Cormier challenged “Bones” for his strap at UFC 182 in 2015, but lost the contest via unanimous decision. They rematched when DC was the light heavyweight king in 2017 at UFC 214. And as history has it, Jones left the arena with Cormier’s belt after landing a showstopping head kick in the third round.
However, the fight was overturned to a no contest after Jones failed a drug test, and Cormier retained his championship.
Cormier Said He ‘Ain’t Going Back to Fighting’
The two never met in a trilogy bout and during a recent episode of Cormier’s “DC & RC” show, DC was asked about returning to the cage to fight Bones for interim heavyweight championship at UFC 282 in December. And in short, Cormier shared he had no interest in fighting again.
“Listen, RC when you realize you can make money without tackling people and getting punched in the face is a whole new world, ain’t it?” Cormier said (h/t MMA News). “I can actually make this money without actually fighting, I ain’t going back to fighting, get out of here man, finally I gotta get ready to go referee some WWF or whatever. WWE I would rather go referee and do all kinds of stuff, man. Let’s go.”
Cormier was a guest referee for WWE’s Extreme Rules event earlier this month.
According to a recent report from “The MMA Hour” host Ariel Helwani, the promotion is looking to book Jones against either heavyweight champ Francis Ngannou or Stipe Miocic on the December PPV.
Cormier Recently Teased Interest in Fighting Jiri Prochazka for the 205-Pound Belt
In July, DC took part in a Monster Energy Twitter Space, and during the Q&A, Cormier teased his interest in fighting the newly crowned light heavyweight champion, Jiri Prochazka, for the belt.
“I said this when I retired, I said I’m only going to fight for championship belts,” Cormier said Sportskeeda.com. “But it’s like, I don’t deserve a heavyweight championship fight. Stipe is not the champ. He beat me the last couple times. I don’t deserve a shot at the heavyweight title. If I was ever going to fight again — which I don’t want to — I would have to go all the way back to 205 pounds.”
“Why? Let me tell you why,” DC continued. “Because I didn’t lose. Remember, I vacated. I didn’t want to go back down there when Jones was gonna fight Gustafsson, so because I vacated the title now, maybe there is some potential in it: ‘Hey Dana (White), you think I could fight Jiri Prochazka for the title?’”
Prochazka will instead be fighting the man he took the belt from in June at UFC 275, Glover Teixeira, at UFC 282 according to a report from MMA Underground’s John Morgan.