Jon Jones has reacted to Daniel Cormier praising him following his retirement from MMA.
On Saturday, Jones confirmed his career is over after Dana White broke the news at UFC Baku.
Daniel Cormier initially called his old rival a quitter for retiring and avoiding a clash with Tom Aspinall.
However, the UFC Hall of Famer subsequently made a confession about their two-fight rivalry.
Photo by Sean M. Haffey/Getty ImagesJon Jones reacts to rare Daniel Cormier praise
Jones outpointed Cormier when they first fought for light heavyweight gold at UFC 182 in January 2015.
In July 2017, Jones won their rematch by knocking ‘DC’ out with a head kick and follow-up punches.
The UFC 214 main event result was overturned when Jones failed a drug test and was temporarily banned from MMA – but Cormier still gives his nemesis credit for beating the very best version of him.
“Everything else aside, all the stuff outside of the Octagon, he won every time that he was put in a fight with a man, one-on-one, and he beat me in Anaheim,” Cormier told ESPN MMA.
“I can tell you this without question. I beat Stipe Miocic, I became the Strikeforce heavyweight champion, UFC light heavyweight champion. I was never better than that time in Anaheim.
“That was the best I’ve ever been, and he beat me, and because of that, I will always respect him for his skills and what he did inside the Octagon.”
Jones stumbled across a clip of Cormier’s comments and shared it to his Instagram story.
‘Rare W,” he captioned the post as he celebrated getting some unexpected praise from his former foe.
Daniel Cormier expects Jon Jones to make a comeback
Cormier believes that Jones’ retirement has been triggered by a desire to avoid Aspinall.
If the new heavyweight king loses, Cormier expects that we’ll see Jones return from retirement.
“I honestly feel like if Tom loses, he’ll come back,” he added.
“It is crazy to me, because that’s only going to make it worse.
“I don’t know if this is tactics by the UFC. I don’t know if this is frustrations with Jon Jones. I don’t know what this is. Does it feel like the end completely? I hope it does, because if he cares about his legacy, he doesn’t want to be sitting there beating up on guys that may get past Tom Aspinall.
“They gave him the money, they gave him everything, and he still wouldn’t do it.”