Cormier vs. Jones: The Pressure is On

Hey there, gamblers. UFC 214 is only a few days away. Have you placed your bets yet?

And no, I’m not referring to betting on the outcome of the main event title clash between UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Daniel Cormier and former champion, and future Cialis spokesperson, Jon Jones.

I’m talking about betting on whether the fight will even happen.

Am I tempting fate by mentioning the possibility that this cursed matchup, of which UFC has currently only successfully made happened once in 4 attempts (Step it up, Khabib and Tony…), finally going down when we’re only days away from it?

Probably. Go eat an eyepoke, Fate.

I usually don’t preview that many fights, partly because I ain’t doing the UFC’s job for free (unless they want to pay me to kiss their ass…I’d be willing to settle for one of those Conor McGregor suits) but I mainly stray away from it because there generally aren’t that many big blockbuster main events with history behind them and stakes big enough to pique my interest beyond wanton bloodlust.

Jones vs. Cormier is different, though. These are men with quite a bit of history. These are men with quite a bit to gain in victory.

These are men with a lot to lose in defeat.

Jones is, presumably, still on his road to redemption. He’s the guy who was on top of the fighting world and decided to bring it down upon himself. He was the guy who beat everyone placed in front of him, sparking debates over whether he was the greatest fighter of all time, to the point that everyone joked that the only man who could defeat Jon Jones was Jon Jones.

Apparently, he took that seriously. He heard what we were saying and responded with, “Hold my beer. Also, this bag of cocaine. Oh, and I left some pot in the backseat of the car I just crashed. Hold on a sec while I go fetch it.”

Of all the things that could have happened to cause the Jones Era to crumble, he had to go and crash his car into another car, injuring a pregnant woman, and then flee from the scene of the crime with a bunch of drug paraphernalia.

I mean, if you’re gonna screw up, might as well do it like a champ, right?

Now, this wasn’t the moment when Jon started to shed the good guy persona that he encapsulated, or at least tried to, on his way towards capturing light heavyweight gold, but it was definitely the point where we saw the greatest extent of the damage caused upon a young man who got thrust into the spotlight before he was truly ready for it..

The question for Jones is if he can handle that spotlight any better now. It sure didn’t seem like he could last year, when he returned from his legal troubles to win a sluggish, unmotivated fight with Ovince St-Preux before getting pulled from a fight with Cormier only days before due to a failed drug test.

That didn’t give the appearance of a changed Jones. It gave the appearance of a Jones who was still doing a bad Floyd Mayweather impersonation. At least he didn’t respond to getting pulled from UFC 200 by doing a DX crotch chop. Or throwing Dave Sholler out of habit.

For Jones, it’s hard to say that beating Cormier on Saturday night will prove to anyone that he has finally changed for the better. For me, it won’t. If anything, it represents the first step in a long process of proving that he wants to be here and he wants to be the best and fight the best since, for a few years now, that hasn’t been the case. If it was, he would have done his due diligence when it came to his choice of boner pills.

Cormier’s goals are different, as the only thing standing between him and closing up the active fighting chapter of his MMA career is beating Jones, the man who gave him the proper motivation to drop down to 205 in the first place. The man who defeated him when they first clashed at UFC 182. The man who he’s been forced to live in the shadow of his entire title reign.

I’m sure that Cormier will continue to say that he doesn’t need to beat Jones to legitimize himself as the best light heavyweight fighter in the world, and technically he doesn’t since he is the one wearing the belt, but we all know that’s not true and Cormier knows it too. Cormier knows what beating Jones means for his legacy.

If Cormier truly feels he is the best and if he wants to go down as the best, he has to beat Jones, the man who was the best and was never beaten for the title that has been sitting around Cormier’s waist for the last 2 years. There’s no other way around it. It’s the only thing that Cormier hasn’t accomplished in his MMA career. He’s been champion. He’s defended the championship. He’s punched Frank Mir in the face…but he still hasn’t beaten Jones, and to truly solidify his place in the eyes of the fans, it must be done.

Granted, even if Cormier wins on Saturday, I’m sure there will be a contingent of fans who still won’t respect him, either because they feel he comes across poorly in interviews or because they think he didn’t fight the best version of Jon Jones, but the majority will hopefully see the victory for what it is and accept that, like him or not, Daniel Cormier is the best, or at least as good as the recognition he rightfully deserves.

That’s the thing that may make the fight on Saturday more anticlimactic than truly satisfying because it may not be the conclusion of the epic rivalry we’re all preparing for. After the fight, Jones will likely still be the spoiled man-child who took his talents for granted and squandered the opportunities he was given. Cormier will still be really good but not the best. Everyone will have paid for a fight between two men who hate each other and want to rip each other apart limb by limb and will still have only gotten two men too hesitant to throw a punch and more than willing to clinch with each other for 25 minutes.

The interview during the UFC on FOX event last Saturday gave the impression these two are ready to kill each other but we all know the difficulty of taking risks at this high a level of MMA, where one mistake could completely shift momentum or lead to the end of the fight. I mean, who wants to do something stupid and get finished by the guy who’s been throwing crap at you on Instagram for the better part of 3 years?

Hopefully we’ll get a good fight on Saturday but don’t be surprised by what we actually end up getting. At least Cris Cyborg is fighting. No way that’s gonna be boring, right?

Dammit. Why do I keep jinxing everything? My bad…

Evan Zivin has been writing for 411 MMA since May of 2013. Evan loves the sport, and likes to takes a lighthearted look at the world of MMA in his writing…usually.