Combat sports love selling hatred. Two fighters spend months telling the world they can’t stand each other. They trade insults, shove each other at press conferences and promise violence right up until the opening bell.
Then the fight ends. Suddenly they’re hugging. “It was just business.” Don’t expect that from Jon Jones and Daniel Cormier. Nearly a decade removed from their final fight, the two former UFC champions still don’t like each other and Cormier isn’t particularly interested in pretending otherwise.
“Jon Jones, I do still hate you and I always will,” Cormier recently said. There is something almost refreshing about that honesty.
Jones and Cormier Are Still Going
The latest chapter started when Cormier mentioned Jones’ lone official professional defeat while discussing MMA’s greatest fighters. That loss, of course, is the infamous 2009 disqualification against Matt Hamill for illegal elbows—a result that remains on Jones’ record despite the type of elbow involved subsequently becoming legal under modern rules.
Jones responded by claiming he was so inexperienced at the time that he didn’t fully understand the rules. Then he turned his attention toward his longtime rival.
“My brother, Daniel Cormier, your jealousy runs so deep through your blood,” Jones wrote on X. “I honestly pray that the good Lord heals you from your envy.”
Even Jones’ supposed prayer for reconciliation somehow sounded like another jab. That’s Jones-Cormier. The fight ended years ago. The fight never really ended.
Why Cormier’s Hatred Runs So Deep
What’s fascinating isn’t simply that Cormier still dislikes Jones. It’s that Cormier understands why losing to him bothered him so profoundly. Cormier built his identity as an athlete around work. Discipline. Preparation. Outworking everyone around him. Throughout his wrestling career, when someone defeated him, Cormier could usually accept that the opponent had sacrificed and worked just as relentlessly as he had.
Jones challenged that worldview. “I saw Jon, and it was the first time that I saw a bit of an outlier,” Cormier explained. Cormier saw extraordinary physical gifts: Jones’ height, reach, toughness, fighting intelligence and natural ability.
What frustrated him was believing Jones hadn’t worked as hard as he had. “It was the first time that I had come across someone that was able to beat me while not working like I worked,” Cormier said. “That was hard for me.”
That’s deeper than losing a championship fight. Jones challenged something Cormier believed about life. Cormier believed relentless work should eventually overcome talent that wasn’t accompanied by equal discipline.
Then Jones beat him. Twice.
Combat Sports Used to Have Rivalries Like This
Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier carried their bitterness well beyond the Thrilla in Manila. Ali eventually attempted to communicate through legendary sportswriter Jerry Izenberg that the vicious insults he’d directed toward Frazier were meant to promote their fights.
Frazier wasn’t interested. Some wounds don’t disappear because the promotion ended. That’s what separates genuine rivalries from manufactured ones.
Jones and Cormier aren’t selling another pay-per-view. They’re retired. There isn’t supposed to be anything left to promote. Yet mention one man’s name around the other and suddenly it’s 2015 again.
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Robert LaMar is a Deputy Editor for Dice City Sports. You can follow him on X via @RobertLaMar26
