Daniel Cormier doesn’t want to wait until UFC 182 to get his hands on the light heavyweight title and suggested that Jones should just fight through his torn meniscus injury just as he was going to.
With Jones officially pulling himself out of the match, Cormier disclosed to FOX Sports 1 that his pre-existing knee injury was actually much more serious than he made public.
“I would be outside of myself to not say I went into this fight knowing my knee was pretty jacked up, and I was going to fight through it to get a title,” he said.
MMAJunkie reports that Jones suffered a torn meniscus and a sprained ankle during a wrestling practice. The result is a ho-hum main event with Demetrious Johnson taking on Chris Cariaso for the flyweight title.
Cormier said that he was initially concerned that he would be replaced by Alexander Gustafsson (who he replaced after Gustafsson suffered an injury), but said he was assured by UFC co-owner Lorezo Fertitta that he is the sole #1 contender.
“I’ll get a full training camp now,” Cormier said. “When I heard Jon was hurt, now him and Gustafssson are on the same schedule in order to be healthy. So my first question was, ‘I don’t have to go behind Gustafsson again now, right?’ And I was assured that it’s going to be me in January. He’s not going to take my place again.”
When asked if he thought Jones made up the injury in an attempt to get out of the fight, Cormier said that he didn’t think but did say that he thought Jones should have fought through the pain.
“I said from the beginning that Jon Jones isn’t afraid of anyone,” Cormier said. “But if I can go in there with a partially torn ACL, I think he should have fought; tough it up and fight. I don’t know the extent of his injuries, and if it’s really bad, I’ll take it back. But on the surface, I heard he hurt himself. But people hear ACL, they think you’re out for a year. I’ve been hurt, and I’ve been training. I wish he would have just fought.”
DC said that it was a question of mind over matter.
“I’m saying tough it out sometimes,” he added. “Sometimes you’ve got to go in there and tough it out and just fight.”
