In his own words, Daniel Cormier has a man-to-man message for past nemesis Jon “Bones” Jones.
Earlier this week, a former American Kickboxing Academy (AKA) teammate of Daniel Cormier, Luis Peña, was released from the UFC following a second domestic violence charge this year. The details behind this latest incident were particularly troubling, so much so that the promotion felt they had to take swift action in their decision to part ways. That led many to question why that same move wasn’t applied to Jon Jones, who has also had multiple run-ins with the law and who was also just hit with a domestic violence charge.
Thursday, Cormier took to his YouTube channel prepared to tackle some tough subjects.
“We saw Luis Peña get cut from the UFC because of his interactions with his girlfriend—and rightfully so,” Cormier began. “And Luis is a guy that I know. But when he’s having these issues, I feel like the right decision was made. That leads us to my ‘friend’ Jon Jones.”
A brief smirk appeared on Cormier’s face after the utterance of the word ‘friend.’ As the MMA community well knows, Cormier and Jones have been anything but friendly, even before Cormier signed with the UFC in 2015.
The longstanding feud between the two has been evident backstage, in press conferences, virtual interviews, social media—pretty much any platform you can think of. In this video, Cormier appeared to make a conscious decision to put all that aside and speak candidly on this very sensitive subject.
Cormier: Jones Now At A Turning Point After Recent Fallouts & Conflicts
Cormier began by addressing Jones’ longtime coach Mike Winkeljohn’s decision to ban “Bones” from the team. Cormier believes that for it to get to the point where longtime allies are beginning to part with Jones, that is an indication of the seriousness at play here. Jones reacted after Winkeljohn’s decision was made public, stating that it was “heartbreaking” to lose the support of someone he respects so much.
“Had a heartbreaking conversation over the phone with one of my longtime coaches last night, really hurts to lose the support of someone I respect so much. Sincere thank you to the rest of the coaches for staying in the fight with me. Our journey continues..” Jones wrote in a since-deleted tweet.
Jones also tweeted a denial that he ever assaulted his fiancée, Jessie Moses, and clarified that, contrary to what the public has been led to believe, his children did not witness the altercation between him and Moses.
Cormier viewed the tweets as well as the police report, and he took the time to share how he is processing all the information at his disposal.
“Now I’m not in the business of assumptions,” Cormier began. “One thing he did try to clarify on Twitter was that he didn’t hit his fiancée. When you listen to the police call, it sounded like the security guards and the police report think that he hit his fiancée.
“I think the scariest thing is what Coach Wink said again today. It makes me sad that his daughters said, ‘Call the police.’ That’s a thing that saddens you. With all those little things, you gotta think, it doesn’t matter who you are, what kind of person you are. Those things have to really make you look within yourself and make a decision. Because no one’s perfect. But at a point, you gotta make a decision for not only you, for your daughters, for your fiancée, for your family, for everything. And I think right now’s that time.”
Cormier went on to state that after longtime allies like Winkeljohn and former manager Malki Kawa have parted with Jones, this signals the turning point the embattled UFC great is currently situated at.
“But the scariest part about this is in these moments when people who have issues start to lose the closest allies, it can go one of two ways,” Cormier said. “One way, they could go to the top and get their shit together, or they can actually just plummet. So I think it’s gonna be very important for the people that are closest to Jones to really try to help him decide and figure how he’s gonna go forward. Because this is that slippery slope.”
As someone on the outside looking at the paths of two men he is very familiar with: one a past acquaintance, the other a past nemesis, Cormier is admittedly a very invested observer.
“I’m very interested to see what comes of this. I’m very interested to see what a 34-year-old Jones does opposed to a 26-year-old Jones. I’m interested to see what happens to a Luis Peña.
“These guys are playing a dangerous game. And it seems as though, right now, they’re losing. And in a world where all of that behavior is completely unacceptable, you deserve to lose.”
“So big moment in these two men’s careers. I wonder how they bounce back from them. You can have all the talent in the world. And we know that Jones does. But if you can’t get those ducks in a row, none of that even matters.
Daniel Cormier Delivers “Man To Man” Message To Jon Jones
In the YouTube video, Cormier expressed his bewilderment at Jones’ constant attempts to tweet away “explanations” and “answers” whenever he’s made an epic mistake. Particularly, he doesn’t know who or what is guiding Jones to do so. There was one mentor figure who Cormier credited, however. He praised Winkeljohn’s decision to ban Jones from the gym, as he believes gestures like that are ultimately what it’s going to take for Jones to look in the mirror.
As Jones prepares to do that, DC expressed that he has no desire to kick a man when he is down. He says the trash talk between the two over the years was always when they were both on equal standing. Now that Jones appears to be at rock bottom, Cormier instead took the time to deliver a straight-up, man-to-man message to his former foe.
“So from me to this guy: We’ll never be friends. But human to human, you gotta get your shit right. And show some remorse. Show some remorse. Before you hit that send button on those tweets, you gotta think about what you’re saying. Because it seems as though you tell yourself so many lies that you start to believe ’em. Don’t lie to yourself. Surround yourself with people that are gonna tell you the truth and then find some answers. Because otherwise, it’s gonna be done. And it’s close. It’s close to actually being done. It’s close to being done.
“So from day one: Great fighter, horrible person. And the actions that are starting to show themselves today, fuck everything else: steroids, the partying—all that other shit, the fight with the stripper, all that—forget all that. When you start doing that to the family and then the kids gotta watch that? Pfft, shame on you, my man. Get that shit right, dawg. Seriously. Man to man. Get that shit right.”
You can listen to Cormier’s full remarks in the video below.