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Daniel Cormier says Jon Jones' substance abuse is 'not off limits' when promoting their fight
Last Friday at the UFC Summer Kickoff press conference, light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier and Jon Jones definitely had the most spirited exchanges on the stage that didn't involve actually trying to punch each other.
During the back and forth argument, the two rivals took aim at each other with all sorts of jabs and insults but particularly notable was Cormier constantly calling Jones 'a junkie' stemming from his past issues with substances abuse.
While Jones gave as good as he got including one shot where he told Cormier that he beat him back in 2015 after a weekend of cocaine, the current 205-pound champion did receive some backlash that insulting a person based on substance abuse was off limits.
Cormier disagreed and explained how Jones' issues have not only affected his life and career but it's also damaged others around him and that's what makes it all fair game.
"These things are so public, these instances are so public and if he was doing all this stuff to himself and by himself and not affecting people, then I probably wouldn't say anything. But his indiscretions and his mess-ups, they've greatly influenced my career, too, and the way that I'm perceived," Cormier explained on "The Luke Thomas Show" on Sirius XM. "A lot of people would say 'well you'd never be champion if he didn't do those things'. Maybe if he would have beat me again, but we would have fought already to decide that. But even though I am champion is because of the things that he has done to get in that situation, people never truly respect me as they should.
"Not only are they not respecting me as they should, they're discrediting everything that I have done. It's not off limits."
Cormier also pointed towards Jones making his own choices in life from the DUI he got back in 2012 after he totaled his Bentley to testing positive for cocaine in the lead up to their first fight as well as the 2015 hit-and-run accident that cost him the light heavyweight title as well as put him on probation for 18 months.
"That's a choice that he made," Cormier explained. "You are not born with addiction issues. You make the choice to start to mess with that. So yes, I'm going to do it and I'm going to tell him anything I want to tell him."
Of course, Cormier also takes it one step further by accusing Jones of cheating throughout his entire career with substances that enhance his performance rather than just the recreational drugs he's admitted using in the past.
"I also believe he's a steroid abuser, 100-percent. If you're willing to do what he did, and before I was taking it for face value like the month before he said he did cocaine or he got caught and he said he just tried it. He was like I was with my friends and I tried it for the first time. What did I know the difference? So I was like OK. Then the other day he goes 'I did it a week before we fought' and I thought you said that first time was the only time you've done it? He's probably been doing it.
"I've got a cousin that’s a cop, he said he's been on scenes where people have been on that stuff and been shot and barely knew they got shot. It's no joke."
Cormier admits he's just speculating based on personal belief but his rationale is that if Jones is willing to do a drug like cocaine in the lead up to arguably the biggest fight of his career, why wouldn't he take a performance enhancing substance to help him as well?
"If you're willing to do that right before a fight, and that's something that could be detrimental to you going forward, why wouldn’t you do something that could help you?" Cormeir said. "That's my philosophy. I could be wrong.
"I do believe that this dude has been cheating his whole entire life."
