Cormier: ‘Losing Jon Jones Hurts The Sport’

Now that Jon Jones has been suspended and stripped of his title, Daniel Cormier will be stepping in to fight Anthony Johnson for the chance to be the new light-heavyweight champ.

Cormier spoke with BJPENN.COM’s Layzie The Savage about the news and discussed his thoughts on Jones’ actions and what the consequences may be.

Ultimately, Cormier sees this as a chance for Jones to make the right changes in his life to turn things around, saying, “He just needed a wake up call like that.”

He added, “He’ll come back better for it, a better person. Sometimes it takes something dramatic to actually change the person. Maybe this is what’s going to actually change him, in the right way.”

DC doesn’t see how things could be much worse for the former champ and suggests that for Jones hitting rock bottom may be a good thing.

Cormier doesn’t think being out of competition for however long Jones is out will effect him too much, saying, “Yeah he’ll be fine. It doesn’t matter how long he’s gone, he’ll come back and be as special as he always was.”

Obviously Cormier is benefiting from the situation, getting a title shot now that Jones is out, but says it’s not always about that. Like every human he sees the sadness in Jones’ story.

“A lot of times there’s competitive elements to life, then there’s human elements,” explained the AKA fighter, “And the human element, it feels very bad. This guy has children, he has a fiancé and he also has parents. He’s got great parents and a great family, so that’s sad you know.”

DC also talked about the UFC’s decisions to strip Jones’ title and suspend him. The FOX Sports analyst says in his opinion the UFC didn’t have much of a choice.

“I think you have to,” said Cormier, “The UFC has longed to be considered on the same level as the NFL and the NBA and I think if this happened in any of those sports they would have taken the same course of action. The UFC did the right thing. Obviously, competitively it’s to my advantage, I get to fight for a championship again.”

Will Jones’ absence from the sport have a negative impact? Cormier admits that it’s a big loss, but ultimately, he says the sport is bigger than any one person.

“Anytime you lose anyone of that stature, it does hurt the sport. He’s the pound for pound best fighter in the world.”

“The UFC’s bigger than one individual. The UFC will be fine, but when he comes back he’ll be a welcomed edition obviously.”

By: Ryan C. Miller | @ryancmiller1630WATCH! Jake Shields Rips Palhares A New One!