UFC 214 hype continued on Wednesday with a press conference featuring both Daniel Cormier and Jon Jones.
There was certainly no love lost between the two and, while both men seemed to be focused on the task at hand, they still took opportunities to take shots at each other. Cormier didn’t hold back at all and raised intense allegations about Jones and “steroid” use. Cormier feels that it’s been quite some time since Jones hasn’t been on some form of performance-enhancing drug.
“I do believe he’s done (steroids) for a long time,” Cormier told the audience. “What’s the guy’s name that he beat? Stephan Bonnar. Stephan Bonnar – that is when you didn’t do steroids, but everything else in the middle (you did).” Jones defeated Bonnar by unanimous decision at UFC 94 in January of 2009, his second UFC fight.
The crowd in attendance for the press conference were supportive of Jones, but that didn’t keep him from retaliating to Cormier. “You look like a junkie here tonight,” Jones said, referencing Cormier’s scraggly beard and worn-out appearance, presumably from a difficult weight cut. “You look like a crackhead with a suit on.”
“I may look like a crackhead with a suit on, but I’ve never been one,” Cormier responded.
Talk soon turned to Jones and a potential fight with Brock Lesnar, who has been rumored to be considering an MMA comeback.
Regarding Lesnar, Jones was open to the prospect of a fight with the retired former UFC Heavyweight Champion. “I will deal with Daniel, and then I’ll deal with Brock Lesnar,” Jones said.
Dana White, though, was quick to shut down any rumors of a Jones-Lesnar fight or any Lesnar fight for that matter. “I don’t even know where that thing came from or how it started,” White said. “First of all, believe me, I haven’t talked to Brock Lesnar and I don’t know.”
Hiscoe’s Analysis: It wasn’t the most heated press conference, but there was a pretty good back-and-forth between Jones and Cormier here. Two days out from the fight, I’m not feeling the buzz that I would expect from a fight that’s going to do big numbers on pay-per-view. The first Jones-Cormier fight did about 800,000 buys and I don’t expect this card to do better, even though big rematches often surpass their predecessors. “Buzz” is not measurable, though, so “a feeling” isn’t always a good indicator of how well a show will do. Using YouTube views, this event might be tracking to do as well as UFC 182. The first UFC 182 Embedded episode has had 465,000 views in the two years since it’s been posted. Contrarily, the first episode of UFC 214 Embedded has done over 855,000 views on YouTube since Tuesday, so this could indicate that interest is there for the fight.
THURSDAY NOTEBOOK ITEMS…
-Dana White said at the press conference that the winner of the Tyron Woodley vs. Demian Maia fight will fight Georges St-Pierre next. He also said that GSP’s people were in town to talk and that the “Bisping ship has sailed.”
-The Association of Boxing Commissions (ABC) has officially instated four new weight classes for Mixed Martial Arts. The new weights will be 165 (super lightweight), 175 (super welterweight), 195 (super middleweight), and 225 (cruiserweight). No weight classes are being eliminated and there is no obligation for promotions to utilize these new divisions.
-Episode 3 of UFC 214 Embedded is available for viewing HERE.
THROWBACK THURSDAY…
What else but Jones-Cormier I from January 2015: WATCH
NOW CHECK OUT YESTERDAY’S UPDATE: WEDNESDAY NEWS DIGEST 7/26: Brock Lesnar says he’d fight Jon Jones “anytime, anywhere” (w/Hiscoe’s Analysis)
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