Daniel Cormier is prepared to leave Jon Jones behind: I hold the cards now

Last night, in the main event of the stacked UFC 226 card, UFC light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier knocked out Stipe Miocic to capture the UFC heavyweight title. With this outcome, Cormier made history as one of just two men to wear gold in two UFC divisions concurrently — the other being Conor McGregor.

Having realized this lofty goal, Cormier now plans to fight once or twice more before hanging up the gloves in March of 2019, just before his 40th birthday.

Cormier’s next fight, as we now know, is likely to pit him against former UFC heavyweight champ Brock Lesnar. If he fights again thereafter, it’s hard to say who we’ll see standing across the cage from him. One of the frontrunners, of course, would be his arch rival, former UFC light heavyweight champ Jon Jones.

Though Cormier has seemed quite keen on a third fight with Jones in the past, it’s now starting to sound like a fight he’s ready to move on from. Jones is currently tied up with USADA arbitration, and if he’s not ready in time for Cormier’s planned retirement, Cormier will leave him behind.

“I would [fight him again], if he’s around,” Cormier said of Jon Jones at the UFC 226 post-fight press conference (via MMAJunkie). “But I don’t know if he’s going to be around. But at this point, does he even deserve it? I hold the cards now. He may have won the fights, but I hold the cards. I’m the one that competed.

“I went and fought the baddest man on the planet, a great guy, a great champion – a guy that does everything the right way, and I won,” Cormier continued, celebrating his defeat of Miocic. “So I don’t know if that’s going to happen.”

Do you think Daniel Cormier and Jon Jones will fight for a third time before all is said and done?

This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 7/8/2018.