Jon Jones and Daniel Cormier are both nursing injuries heading into their UFC 178 title clash on September 27th, but they’ve both made it clear that come fight night they’ll be showing each other no mercy.
Cormier was on the verge of undergoing knee surgery for a torn LCL and partially damaged ACL before he received a call from the UFC asking whether he wanted to step in to replace Alexander Gustafsson against the champion, and it was an offer he couldn’t refuse.
It’s not quite as bad as it sounds though as Cormier had already been contemplating postponing the surgery since he’d been dealing with the injuries for a while, and he even took on an amateur wrestling bout at the UFC Fan Expo in Las Vegas recently (which he won), so it’s not like he’s hobbling around on crutches or anything like that.
Nevertheless, Cormier’s issues with his knee were public knowedge and in a recent interview he admitted that he was fully expecting Jones to target it in their fight.
“If he didn’t, I’d be very disappointed,” Cormier said on the MMA Hour show. “As a competitor, I’d be very disappointed in Jon Jones if he didn’t. As a competitor he’s had injuries too that I need to target, and I am going to.”
“I’ll try not to disappoint you DC,” Jones responded on Twitter.
Yesterday, Jones posted on Instagram a video of him receiving stitches to a cut above his right eye which he’d received in training, and after watching it Cormier couldn’t resist letting his opponent know how eager he was to get up close and personal with that injury at UFC 179.
“September 27th I’m gonna put so many of these on ur face @jonnybones,” Cormier wrote on Instagram, posting a photoshop of him punching Jones in the face. “I can’t wait everyday I’m dreaming and thinking of you. And I’m gonna take u down and grind my elbow into that cut you got today. Put a bullseye on that thing. Some things should remain private. DC”
Meanwhile, Jones has sought to downplay the seriousness of that injury, confirming that there’s no chance it’ll put the fight in jeopardy.
“FYI this is a completely different scar than the one I had in that area previously, they’re not even touching… The four stitches will be out in four days,” Jones wrote. “The wound should be healed within a week. Time for me to start wearing my head gear #adversityisnothing”
