Daniel Cormier wants to clear the air on his conversation with Jon Jones from the “Fight Inc: Inside the UFC” documentary.
A clip from the documentary surfaced showing Jones (27-1 MMA, 21-1 UFC) having a phone call with the UFC’s broadcast team ahead of his return fight against Ciryl Gane at UFC 285 in January 2023.
Jones specifically asked for Cormier and the two had a brief, awkward conversation where they remained cordial. The camera then panned to Cormier who gave the middle finger. But Cormier says the gesture was not directed at Jones, even though the editing made it seem like it was.
“I asked him about the fight, specifically how he would approach Ciryl Gane and every other thing,” Cormier on his YouTube channel. “Then the UFC pans to me and I flip him off. Guys, I wasn’t flipping off Jones. Everybody made a joke in the room afterwards, so I flipped the bird. It was clever because it makes it look a certain way.”
Cormier explains his hesitancy to engage with Jones at the start, even though he knew it would be inevitable with him on the call for big pay-per-view events.
“With Jon Jones and I, for a long time, I wouldn’t call his fights,” Cormier said. “I would just tell my producers and tell the people, ‘I don’t want to do it,’ because my emotions were so strong towards him, that I didn’t necessarily want to call Jon Jones’ fights. Especially when I was still competing.
“I’m not actively competing anymore, so I said to myself, let’s do this because these are going to be some of the bigger fights in the UFC. I need to be there to first try and do my job and second, put this whole chapter behind me and show that I can be professional and call his fights to the best of my ability.”
Jones submitted Gane to claim the vacant heavyweight title. He is expected to make his first title defense against Stipe Miocic, possibly in November at UFC 309 in New York.
