Daniel Cormier may still have a rivalry with Jon Jones, but that hasn’t stopped him from urging Dana White to change his mind and allow the former two-division champion to fight at next year’s UFC: White House event.

“Jon Jones has stated publicly he wants to fight at the White House. He’ll tell anyone that’ll listen,” Cormier said on his YouTube channel. “But Dana seems more stern in not letting him today than I have ever seen him in regards to Jon Jones.

“This time he seems like he is not going to back down and allow for him to be on this White House card. And if I’m being completely honest, I don’t know if I agree with it. I think I’d let him fight.

“I think, if he wants to fight, I’d let him fight because for as much as mixed martial arts is a global sport, and it’s a sport that everybody loves, and we support people from all around the world, at the end of the day we’re fighting at the White House.

“You want American people that can win at the end of the night. Imagine if we’re on the White House lawn and the Americans aren’t winning fights. And that could happen because when the opening line for McGregor vs. Chandler comes out, Chandler is going to be a pretty substantial underdog, as he should be. Even though Conor hasn’t fought in forever, he’ll still be the favorite to beat Michael Chandler. 

“But if you put Jon Jones against Tom Aspinall, for everybody that says Tom Aspinall is the guy to beat him, when that line opens I bet Jon Jones is still going to be the favorite. He’ll still be the favorite to beat Tom Aspinall. He’ll be the guy that’s the world champion, or at least was the world champion before he vacated his title and retired, so he’ll still be the favorite to win that fight.

“I believe that you’ve got to let him fight,” Cormier concluded. “We have no American guys in the Top 10 Pound-for-Pound (rankings) since Jon Jones retired. That’s crazy. 

“Come on. Come on, boss. It’s me asking you to give Jon Jones a chance.  That’s crazy.”