At UFC 214, Daniel Cormier suffered a knockout loss to his rival Jon Jones, ending his title reign in the light heavyweight division. However, Jon Jones has since been flagged for a potential anti-doping policy violation. Now, Daniel Cormier has come forward with his thoughts on the situation.
In a recent interview with Ariel Helwani in The MMA Hour, as transcribed by MMA Fighting, Daniel Cormier explained what it has been like dealing with the recent loss.
“It takes time to get through something like [UFC 214]. I’ve experienced it. I’ve experienced it at a high level with the Olympics and the Jones fights and the NCAA finals. It takes time to get over these things, and when you start to come around, the last thing you want to do is be sucked back into the situation that you’re trying to overcome. So it was tough. It took a day. I felt sick.
“We got to Disney Aulani (on vacation) and it was time to check in, and I had to go to my room and lay down, just because my head was spinning. Because you just don’t really know how to take news like that.”
The former UFC champion then offered some words on USADA. “I’ve been in the USADA testing pool since 2001. That was when I first started to get tested by USADA, my first U.S. national team.
“There wasn’t USADA when I first started MMA, but 2001 to ‘09, and then … USADA got [to the UFC] in ’15, so it’s been about nine years that I’ve been in this program. And all of this time that I was in the USADA program, I was actually taking supplements, and I never actually had anything like that happen. So I just don’t understand how something like that could happen, especially back-to-back.
“And I really want to be careful with how I answer these questions, because Jon is entitled to the process of what’s going to happen with his other tests. But I think in the last case (before UFC 200), they said he was reckless, so they gave him a year (suspension). How could you be reckless again going into another fight? It’s so odd. So for me, it’s very concerning, because it seems as though in the last two fights that him and I were supposed to fight, that something like that happens. And I don’t want to be sour grapes. That’s why it’s hard to answer the question — he won the fight. But it just makes it very odd.”
As far as Jon Jones’ recent failed drug test, Daniel Cormier explained “I’ll tell you, I’m upset, I was upset, I was very upset, but my coaches were upset,” Cormier said. “They were very, very upset, because they saw the work that we put into this, and it’s hard for me. I mean, if he did do something illegal — imagine if I did that at 38? To be able to wake up and not feel like I can’t walk down the stairs every morning? So that would really suck, and it’s pissed off my coaches, because those guys know the work that I put into that fight.”
