Daniel Cormier: Jon Jones is “always” around a title fight

Former UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones has certainly had a long and storied rivalry with current light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier.

The pair’s rivalry began several years ago, and escalated to an all new level when the pair were involved in their infamous press conference brawl. While the pair have been scheduled to fight on several occasions, they have only met in the Octagon once, where Jones earned a unanimous decision over his rival. Most recently, the pair were set to fight at UFC 200 in July of 2016, however just 48 hours prior to the fight Jones was notified of a USADA anti-doping violation. While ‘Bones’ was cleared of any wrongdoing when it was discovered that the failure was the result of a tainted supplement, he was still handed a year-long suspension.

With Jones’ suspension nearly up, UFC light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier, who is gearing up for his UFC 210 fight with Anthony Johnson, spoke to MMAJunkie about UFC President Dana White’s recent comments about Jon Jones likely receiving an immediate title shot upon returning:

“I’m a straight shooter. I’m not going to sit here and try to downplay the guy’s accomplishments. I know who he is, I know who he was, so he should always be around a title fight,” he recently told MMA Junkie.

“I won’t downplay his accomplishments and say he’s not worthy. But we’ll see. I always want to fight him.

“I told you guys time and time again: If they would have let me fight him again, I would have fought him in two days even after he tested positive for steroids. I would have still fought him. I asked to sign a waiver to fight him even though his test came back dirty. So yeah, I’d love to fight him, of course.”

on 4/1/2017.