Daniel Cormier opens up on “crazy ride” of UFC 197

While Daniel Cormier is no longer able to fight at UFC 197, the UFC light heavyweight champion admits that the road leading up to his withdrawal from the event was a bumpy one.

Cormier spoke on The MMA Hour to discuss his knee injury, Jon Jones’ legal troubles, and his decision to ultimately withdraw from the highly anticipated event.

“Midweek I was still kind of hoping that I’d still be okay to fight,” Cormier said on Monday’s edition of The MMA Hour. “It’s weird, man, because even though the stuff doesn’t happen to you, it’s happening to Jon, Jon is the one that’s doing it, it’s almost like, he takes you on this crazy ride with him that you don’t really don’t want to be on.”

“I don’t want to be on this ride with him, this up and down, round and about circle. I want to this to be on straight line, I want my life to be as I intended it to be, but, when you’re fighting with Jones and all these issues that he’s had, he kind of takes you on this roller coaster ride that’s he’s had. It’s emotional, honestly.”

“I was trying not to pay too much attention to it because I was trying to, hopefully, trying to improve to the point that I could fight,” Cormier said. “I figured Jon would be okay, Jon’s a guy that, in every situation, he seems to come out okay on the opposite side. I knew he’d be okay and I was hoping he’d keep the fight together.”

With ‘DC’ out of his April 23rd bout with Jones, Ovince Saint Preux has stepped in on short notice to fight Jones for the interim light heavyweight championship. It is now expected that Jones vs. DC II will either take place at UFC 200, or at the UFC’s inaugural event at Madison Square Garden later this year.