Morning Report: Daniel Cormier to Jon Jones: ‘It’s time for wholesale changes’

Last month, Jon Jones was arrested on charges of misdemeanor domestic violence following and incident at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas, where Jones’ fiancée, Jessie Moses, was found with blood on her face and clothes after a dispute that occurred in their hotel room. Jones responded to these events by blaming the incident on alcohol and denying that he struck Moses. Even still, earlier this week, was kicked out of longtime gym Jackson-Winkeljohn, at least temporarily. This comes after Jones separated from his longtime management team, First Round Management, back in April, and with Jones now without some of his most enduring support structure, one-time rival Daniel Cormier believes that what comes next for Jones is critical.

“It makes me sad that his daughter said (to) call the police.” Cormier said on his YouTube channel. “That’s the thing that saddens you. All those little things you’ve got to think that it doesn’t matter who you are, what type 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’ve got to make a decision for not only you – for your daughters, for your fiancée, for your family, for everything. I think right now is that time.

“But the scariest part about this is in these moments, when people who have issues start to lose their closest allies, they can go one of two ways: One way, they can go to the top and get their sh*t together, or they can actually just plummet. So I think it’s very important for the people that are closest to Jones to help him decide and figure how he’s gonna go forward. This is that slippery slope.

“It’s time for wholesale changes. Because now, you’re looking at Winkeljohn’s gone, Jackson’s gone, Malki Kawa’s gone, Abraham Kawa’s gone. All of his greatest allies are starting to fall off, one by one. So when you’re left alone, how do you answer? And you start to hear the voices chirping. All the doubt, the questions as to how you ended up there, how do you deal with that? For people that have issues, they don’t normally deal with that very well. So this is a big moment for Jon Jones.”

Jones and Cormier have one of the most storied and bitter rivalries in MMA history. For years, the two went back and forth at each other, with Cormier once famously telling Jones, after winning the light heavyweight title Jones was forced to vacate when he was involved in a hit-and-run, ‘Get your sh*t together, I’m waiting for you’. Now, Cormier is imploring the same thing from Jones, not for the prospect of a future fight between the two, but for Jones own sake.

“We don’t kick people when they’re down,” Cormier said. “In all the build-up when we said nasty things about each other, talked about each other, that’s in the build. That’s whenever this guy’s on his game, he’s getting ready to fight. But when a man’s down, you don’t kick him. You wait until he’s back on his feet. Right now, he’s the furthest thing from his feet. This is a bad place for Jon Jones, especially as the allies start to drop off.

“From me to this guy, we’ll never be friends. But human to human, you’ve got to get your sh*t right. And show some remorse. Before you hit that send button on those tweets, you’ve got to think about what you’re saying. It seems as though you tell yourself so many lies that you start to believe them. Don’t lie to yourself. Surround yourself with people that are gonna tell you the truth and then find some answers, otherwise it’s gonna be done. Because it’s actually close to being done.”

Jones is currently out on bond and is due back in court Oct. 26.

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N/A.

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Thanks for reading, enjoy the fights, and see y’all on Monday.

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