Daniel Cormier wants people to hold their horses when it comes to comparing Jon Jones to all-time greats from other sports.
Specifically, Cormier took umbrage with the suggestion that Jones will have a legacy as long-lasting as NBA legend Michael Jordan. A six-time NBA champion and five-time MVP, Jordan is widely regarded as the best basketball player to ever walk the Earth.
Jones is held in similar regard by the MMA community, having reigned atop the light heavyweight division from 2011 to 2020 (his runs halted only by outside-of-the-cage legal issues as well as failed drug tests in 2016 and 2017), and he never suffered a loss in 29 pro bouts outside of a disqualification to Matt Hamill. In his most recent fight, he captured the UFC heavyweight title with a one-sided submission win over Ciryl Gane.
The Jones-Jordan comparison came up during Cormier’s recent appearance on the Pound 4 Pound podcast when host Kamaru Usman suggested that it isn’t crazy to consider Jones the Jordan of MMA. Cormier vehemently disagreed.
“You done with the interview?” Cormier said, jokingly. “Do you just want to be done? What? … So Jon Jones is the Michael Jordan and LeBron James of MMA? You’re going to sit up here, real life, one, two, three, four, five cameras… Jon Jones, to me, if I’m talking about a football or basketball equivalent. Jon Jones, when I’m looking for a sports [comparison], is a guy who has done so much, but because of all the other stuff, it’s hard to put him in that rarified air.
“If Michael Jordan was doing illegal stuff, we don’t know about it, I can’t judge him. Georges St-Pierre, can’t judge him. I know of the other stuff, so it’s hard for me to say this guy’s just sitting up there. Michael Jordan got done playing basketball in 1996 and people still don’t want to say somebody’s better. There will be a person that comes along that people will say replaces Jon Jones as the greatest of all-time. He has not left such a legacy that it doesn’t feel like it’s [never] going to be toppled. Jordan left a legacy that we have seen LeBron James do what he do, we’ve seen Kobe [Bryant] do what he do, we have seen these great players and they’re still unwilling to say they’re better.”
Aside from Jones’ well-documented transgressions, which Cormier has long maintained are impossible to overlook when discussing his legacy, the UFC Hall of Famer just doesn’t believe that Jones has done enough to make an unassailable case to be considered the GOAT. “DC” is a two-division champion himself having held the heavyweight and—as a beneficiary of Jones’ suspensions—the light heavyweight title.
Up next for Jones, he defends the heavyweight title against Stipe Miocic at UFC 309 on Nov. 16 at Madison Square Garden in New York. Losing to Jones twice (the second bout overturned to a no-contest when Jones tested positive for a banned substance, Cormier takes nothing away from his longtime rival’s ability to step up in big game situations.
“I think that’s what he does,” Cormier said. “The bigger the challenge, the better he prepares. So that lends this question: People see to be looking past Stipe. Everybody’s looking past Stipe, so will he not train himself as hard? Because if he looks past Stipe, Stipe’s a bad boy. Stipe Miocic is a bad boy.
“He hits hard. He’s not slow. He can wrestle. He’s got good cardio, and Stipe’s not a quitter. That’s going to be a tougher fight for Jon Jones than people even imagine.”
And as much as Jones has been criticized for sticking with the UFC’s plan for him to fight Miocic as opposed to pushing for a fight with interim champion Tom Aspinall, Cormier isn’t using that as a reason to downgrade Jones’ in-cage acumen.
“He’s so much smarter than people give him credit for and he’s tough,” Cormier said. “He’s way tougher than people give him credit for.”
