Daniel Cormier: Jon Jones ‘Is Just Better’ Than Alexander Gustafsson
UFC heavyweight and light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier will probably never settle his grudge against Jon Jones but that doesn’t mean he can’t respect the skills he brings into the cage with him.
Ahead of UFC 232 in December, Cormier probably has a better perspective than anybody in the sport about how Jones will do in his return fight against Alexander Gustafsson.
While Gustafsson took Jones deeper than any opponent he’s ever faced, the longest reigning light heavyweight champion in UFC history has readily admitted he wasn’t focused much less training at his hardest to truly get ready for that fight.
Cormier believes Jones when he says that because he’s faced both of them inside the cage and he just doesn’t see how Gustafsson wins the rematch on Dec. 29.
“I think Jones beats Gustafsson,” Cormier said on Thursday at the UFC 230 media day. “I fought them both and with Alexander, outside of that big knee, nothing really hurt or anything. He kneed me in the third round but that was a round I won probably four minutes and 30 seconds of until he landed the knee, that’s why I won the fight. The second round he cut me but he won that round based on the fact that he got takedowns. That was at a time where I fought every takedown so hard that if I ever gave up a takedown, I lost the round.
“He’s a good fighter and he will present challenges to Jones because of his length that I can’t really present Jones with. But I think that Jones is just better. I know that when I’m fighting him, there are a number of things I need to worry about that I didn’t necessarily feel that against Alexander.”
The tough part about this fight for Cormier is that when Jones and Gustafsson step into the cage together at UFC 232, he will lose his light heavyweight title.
The UFC plans to strip Cormier’s belt away from him to crown a new champion in December but the current two-division champion hasn’t given up on one last shot at that belt in 2019 before his planned retirement.
