Daniel Cormier recently went on record that he doesn’t believe that his old rival Jon Jones will find success if he goes up against either Francis Ngannou or Ciryl Gane at heavyweight this year, but it seems that his fellow color commentator Michael Bisping disagrees.
“I believe Jon Jones will fight at heavyweight. And he’ll fight for the belt, but he’ll lose to Ciryl Gane or Francis Ngannou,” Cormier said on his ESPN show this week.
“I just think with the time away, the weight difference, those guys being who they are – That’s the problem. It’s not that Jones has gotten worse. It’s just that these guys are a different level of heavyweight.”
Cormier’s opinion certainly carries a lot of weight as he’s not only fought Jones on two separate occasions at light-heavyweight, but is also a former heavyweight champion too.
Nevertheless, Bisping believes that the deeply rooted bad blood between DC and Jones may be clouding his judgement.
“They (Ngannou and Gane) are different, but I think I’ve got to disagree with Daniel Cormier here,” Bisping said on his YouTube channel a few days later. “These guys (Cormier and Jones) don’t like each other. They are major rivals. I’ve never had a rivalry like this, not somebody that I hated to that degree.”
“I didn’t have a rival to the sense that DC and Jon Jones does because it is deep. It is deep with these two. They never liked each other from the day they first met. It was in a nightclub, and right there and then they knew they were going to fight, and fight they did.
“Regardless of his behavior outside of the octagon, which hasn’t been great. Regardless of the steroid tests, which does change things. It’s a massive asterisk,” Bisping continued. “But the reality is, if you look at the performances, he (Jones) potentially is the greatest of all time. We’re talking the longest win steak in UFC history. Most title fight wins in UFC history. Has never lost a fight other than a disqualification… And he’s not even 35 yet.
“There’s no what they he’s going to show up ‘old’ as they say. Now, he does have a problem. Ciryl Gane is unbelievable. Francis Ngannou is unbelievable. Jon Jones is out there. Jon Jones has a resume. Jon Jones is one of the best to ever do it. So to say that he can’t comeback after this time and beat those guys, I don’t think that I agree. I don’t think I agree.”
