Daniel Cormier Says He Won’t Respond to Jon Jones

In an interview with CBS Sports, Daniel Cormier said he doesn’t plan to respond to comments from Jon Jones because he doesn’t want to glorify him. Here are highlights:

On not responding to Jones: “[Jones] doesn’t have a platform and I refuse to give him a platform. He’s a nobody. He has been suspended again. He’s mired in controversy for drug abuse. Your issues are tied to steroids, performance enhancers. You don’t get a platform when you’re like that. It’s like me glorifying Lance Armstrong.”

On Jones’ fight history: “[Jones] won the fight but, hey, since USADA has gotten involved with the UFC, he only fought one time. He has had four fights scheduled. So he fought Ovince and he fought me but that second one was a no-contest. The Ovince fight was the only time he fought and there was no controversy surrounding it. So I’m pretty sure there was some dirty stuff going on [in our first fight]. That’s why the test results were all jacked up in December.”

On never getting a chance to beat Jones: “This whole Jon Jones thing has been marred in controversy and never on my behalf. So I can’t let that dictate how I approach my career in any way, shape or form. I didn’t do those bad things. I didn’t do steroids. I didn’t get taken out of a fight for steroid abuse once and test positive for steroids a second time. I didn’t get, before the first fight, having rinky-dinky tests to start. There are so many reasons why I shouldn’t be tied to him anymore and I’ve gotten back to the point now where it doesn’t affect me.”