What’s eating Daniel Cormier? The Jon Jones Complex
Saturday April 8th. The biggest win of his career earned. Daniel Cormier downed the human wrecking ball that is ‘Rumble’ Johnson with relative ease, for a second time. The outcome of the rematch was even more comprehensive than their first encounter. Cormier showed his outstanding wrestling, cardio and the ‘grind’ he proclaims himself king of. Having endured a horrendous weight cut that visibly seemed to age the Olympian in the week leading up to the fight, Cormier had his hand raised. He conquered adversary (with the help of a seemingly magic towel that we won’t get in to) and further cemented his legacy as…the second best light-heavyweight in mixed martial arts. “But he’s the champ??” I hear you say. He’s not Jon Jones though.
As peerless as Cormier has been as a champion, he will forever have an asterix beside his reign, IF he fails to defeat Jones in the octagon. Is this fair? No, not in the least because he has beaten the contenders put before him. Will this happen? Yes, 100% because of the lack of one ‘Bones’ Jones on his hit-list. Unfortunately for Cormier, regardless of his own beliefs or the spin he wants to put on the narrative for all and sundry, the spectre of Jon Jones looms larger than ever. Jones is currently banned after testing positive for the banned substances clomiphene and letrozole, believed to have entered his system through the sexual enhancement pill ‘Cialis’. With Jones out of the picture, Cormier has battled away at the top of the division, defeating Anderson Silva, on short notice in a non-title fight, which he was booed loudly during, and then completely shutting down knockout hungry Rumble for a second time. He has also kept the Jones question fresh by pandering to the media’s whims and keeping the bad blood alive at almost every opportunity.
Now, I realise this may seem like a damning appraisal of Cormier but consider the following: Cormier is an established figure in media circles. He understands how the media works and how journalists will look for a sound bite. If he truly believed that Jon Jones needed Cormier, and the Cormier fight, more than he needed Jones, he would have refused to entertain the Jones question. Rather than shrug off the Jones questions, we were given “If he dares to step foot in that octagon … something bad will happen.” Nice bit of chum for the assembled sharks, Daniel. Realistically the opposite would have been true, in one sense. Jones stepping foot into the octagon would have been box office. The second biggest feud in UFC reignited where it needs to be framed, in the cage, not on social media. If the rematch happens (and WME badly need it to happen given the McGregor-sized hole in PPV sellers for 2017) then Cormier is in line for the biggest payday of his career, and a chance to retire content. But for this to happen, it has to be Jones standing across the octagon. That’s the match up that has captured the imagination before, and given the vitriol which has spewed from both men since their first meeting, there is nothing to suggest it won’t capture the imagination again.
The numbers side of the argument is compelling, when trying to decide whether Cormier needs Jones to remain relevant. Stats can be twisted and manipulated to fit a certain agenda, and that’s exactly what I intend to do. In this case, the stats are numbers in the form of PPV buys. Now, certain elements do have to be taken into context here, given the explosion in popularity of MMA, over the past 4/5 years. Jones v Cormier at UFC 182 did a substantial 800k buys back in 2015. To put this in context McGregor v Mendes at UFC 189 did 825k, so the feud does rest in elite territory, as regards buy rates and selling power. Or at least it did before the numerous indiscretions on Jones’ behalf and injuries for DC. How about the rest of the men’s headliners?
There are a few standouts to take from this comparison. First, and foremost, the numbers for 210 aren’t calculated yet, and won’t be for another couple of weeks. They could be huge. But, judging by prelim numbers from Fox, they won’t be. The prelim numbers were the lowest since UFC 204 back in October. When you consider the massively underwhelming cards of UFC 206 and UFC 208 (as regards star power — 206 was a barnburner!!) this does not bode well. Past that, Jones has proven himself a draw, more so than Cormier. His major issue as a star is whether he actually makes it to fight night without causing an international incident, due to kicking a helpless puppy or some other PR faux-pas. Cormier has had issues with injury in the past (along with everyone else and their mother at AKA) but he manages to turn up for fights with his image intact. The issue here: nice guys don’t sell fights. For reference, see Demetrious Johnson’s figures and Conor McGregor or Chael Sonnen’s. Jones is a recognised bad boy (however much he may have wanted to avoid it) while DC is the squeaky clean Olympic athlete attempting to turn heel, at 38 years of age. It’s an ill-fitting suit for the man. Without the relevant good versus evil dichotomy, Cormier just doesn’t get the pulse racing. Jones, while a walking PR disaster of Chris Brown proportions, manages it. Just like your main crush back in school, everybody is intrigued by a bad boy.
Another derivative from the above figures is the fading state of the Light Heavyweight division in the UFC. Gone are the days when Liddell, Ortiz, Rampage, Griffin, Shogun, Evans and Machida fronted the deepest division in the game. The UFC is lacking in star quality at 205, but perhaps more worryingly, they’re haemorrhaging depth at a rapid rate. Ryan Bader was never going to beat Cormier, Jones or Johnson, but he was still a stalwart of the division, likewise Phil Davis. With Jones off the radar, until July at least, 205 is sorely lacking in needle-movers. I am not suggesting the dearth of talent at Light Heavyweight is Cormier’s fault but it certainly impacts him in a monetary sense. If he wants to make buck before riding off into the sunset, he needs the Jones fight. Jones, on the other side of this, certainly wouldn’t be in a position to turn his nose up at the Cormier fight. I mean, it would result in coming off over 2 years of inactivity, entirely due to your own failings as a person, and being handed an immediate title fight, and opportunity to make sizeable bank.
Past this however, there’s the question of the somewhat untested waters of the heavyweight division. Cormier won some fights at Heavyweight, beating the ever durable Roy Nelson and Josh Barnett, but there is the sense he was massively undersized, similar to how Nelson is. Jones is a different beast in this regard. 84 inch reach, 6’5, he has the frame to move up for sure. During his recent grappling match with Dan Henderson, Bones tipped the scales at 238 lbs. To put that into some context, Heavyweight Champion Stipe Miocic weighed in at 246 lbs for his title defence at UFC 203, against Alistair Overeem. The idea of Jones filling out his mantis-like frame and utilising his unconventional offence at heavyweight is one that fills the mind with intrigue. There are plenty big match ups for him to cash in on, and also quite a decent chance of success, if (and it’s a big if) he can shake the ring rust evident in the OSP fight and return to the Bones of old, minus the nose candy and boner pills. Also, at 29 compared to DC’s 38, Jones still has ample time to come back, sort out his issues and go on another legendary tear. His timeline isn’t blocked by Father Time’s in the same way Cormier’s is.
This limited time left at the upper echelons is definitely a fact DC is aware of and he realises that he has an ever diminishing window to rectify the one blot on his copybook. This knowledge may be driving Cormier’s contradictory agenda. Take his appearance on the MMA Hour following Saturday’s victory.
“I’ve got to the point in my life where I’m like, this guy has no control over me,” he said. “This guy has no control over me anymore. Like, if he can’t never go back and fight me, that’s on him. I’ve got three UFC gold titles. I’ve got everything else. I’ve got my family, I’ve got my money, I’ve got everything — I’ve got my job for the future. I don’t need that guy.
“That guy needs to fight. That guy needs to come back and fight me. Because this thing doesn’t define who I am as a human being. I think Jon Jones, he needs to be Jon Jones the fighter, because there is nothing else. If you take away Jon Jones the fighter, what is there? Jon Jones the college drop out? Jon Jones the guy that actually ran over some chick in his vehicle? Who is he? He needs this to define him. You strip away everything else … there’s layers to who I am. So he needs this more than me. I don’t need him anymore.”
No control over you eh? Why the calling out of the man after the fight so DC? Hard to follow his line of thinking when his actions scream the opposite is actually the case. The above transcript reads alarmingly like a teenage girl renouncing an ex-boyfriend, only to stalk all their social media platforms for signs of a new beau. The flaunting of family, money and a job for the future also seems odd. Jones has children, plenty money in the bank and no doubt could hit the media scene or transform himself into a coach of sorts. Avenues are not closed to a man of Jones skill level. As for the college drop-out slight, well that just seems childish and irrelevant. Jones could counter with a slight about DC never lording over the p4p list, or failing to secure a medal at the Olympics. Both of these are unfair arguments, much like bringing up the lack of a college degree. The raising of such an argument smacks of a man looking to goad an opponent, not of a man showing indifference. Only today Cormier replied sharply to some Twitter trolls, claiming Jones would knock him out. While Jones had posted a doctored picture of Cormier, dubbing him the champion of the 206.2 lbs division, a man of Daniel Cormier’s standing should be well above replying to such views. But the Jones Complex has him caught up.
The repeated pleas, which actually appear heartfelt, from Cormier to Jones to “get your shit together” tell us that Cormier needs this fight. Without it his whole reign will appear hollow. Maybe not to all the outside observers now, the people who champion Cormier’s stellar character and appreciate the man’s sporting nature, or even observers 20 years down the line, who will see a man with a 19–1 record and 2 wins over the most feared knockout artist in the game, but it will still feel hollow to Cormier, the ultimate competitor, who knows in his heart of hearts that he was a ‘paper’ champion, as derogatory as that is to the man. And so we are left with a Batman and Joker style dance. The idea that neither man needs each other to further their career or cement their legacy is borderline absurd. There’s too much history and too many questions that need answering. The questions lay with DC though. Jones has already found the answers.
