Daniel Cormier has surprisingly taken the side of his bitter rival Jon Jones saying that Jones would never be afraid to fight Francis Ngannou.
Jon Jones was all over Twitter in the wake of Francis Ngannou’s vicious knockout of champ Stipe Miocic at UFC 260, challenging his longtime promoter to pay up for an immediate title shot he’s been linked to since making his move to the heavyweight official.
Jones signaled his interest in fighting Ngannou, tweeting “let’s play baby” and “show me the money” after the new champ was crowned. But as his reactions got to UFC President Dana White, who made remarks on Jones which eventually pissed off Jones and especially irritated at White’s opinion that he didn’t want the fight, or that he would be thinking about fighting in the middleweight division after witnessing Ngannou’s devastation of Miocic.
Daniel Cormier states that Jon Jones is not afraid
Daniel Cormier says that just because Jones is asking for a payday, it doesn’t mean “Bones” is afraid of facing Ngannou.
“Jon Jones, for everything that’s between us, is not afraid of Francis Ngannou,” Cormier said on ESPN’s “DC and Helwani” show. “This is absurd that people think that – he’s not afraid, bro.”
White already presented a Plan B for Ngannou, when he claimed that a Derrick Lewis rematch is the fight to make if “Bones” is hesitant. But Cormier is confident that the matchup between Ngannou and Jones will come to success, and that the current back-and-forth is just a part of the negotiation process.
“Here’s where you start to play the game if you’re Dana and Jones,” Cormier said. “Jones wants his money, Dana has to show that he has options. That’s all that’s happening. High-level negotiations are what’s going on right now. But, make no mistake about it, Jones believes that he’ll beat Francis Ngannou, as any great champion would believe that they would beat him.
“Jon Jones is one of the most talented guys that I’ve ever seen inside the octagon, and if you have to find someone that can piece together a way to solve that puzzle (Ngannou), it’s Jon Jones. Let’s not be crazy here. Jon Jones feels he’s defending himself against his name, but the reality is they’re just negotiating in public. We’ve seen this with Conor (McGregor), we’ve seen this with other fighters in the past. I believe it happens, I do.”
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