Jon Jones recent rants aimed at the UFC over his pay for a potential heavyweight showdown with newly crowned heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou have left some fans and pundits questioining whether the former light-heavyweight champion is simply running scared from this collosal challenge, but ‘Bones’ biggest rival Daniel Cormier thinks otherwise.
“Jon Jones, for everything that’s between us, is not afraid of Francis Ngannou,” Cormier said on the ‘DC and Helwani’ show. “This is absurd that people think that – he’s not afraid, bro.”
Instead Cormier argues that what we’re really seeing is high-profile mind games from Jones and UFC boss Dana White revolving around the fight negotiations for what would surely be one of the biggest fights in recent memory.
“Here’s where you start to play the game if you’re Dana and Jones,” Cormier said. “Jones wants his money, Dana has to show that he has options. That’s all that’s happening. High-level negotiations is what’s going on right now. But, make no mistake about it, Jones believes that he’ll beat Francis Ngannou, as any great champion would believe that they would beat him.
“Jon Jones is one of the most talented guys that I’ve ever seen inside the octagon, and if you have to find someone that can piece together a way to solve that puzzle (Ngannou), it’s Jon Jones. Let’s not be crazy here. Jon Jones feels he’s defending himself against his name, but the reality is they’re just negotiating in public. We’ve seen this with Conor (McGregor), we’ve seen this with other fighters in the past. I believe it happens, I really do.”
