Jon Jones said something nice about Daniel Cormier. Out loud, in an interview, on the record.
MiddleEasy reported Thursday that Jones, speaking in a new interview, gave his longtime rival credit as one of the greatest fighters of all time. He also went out of his way to praise Islam Makhachev. MiddleEasy’s write-up was light on exact wording, so we can’t tell you how many superlatives he used. Still, Jones tossing GOAT credit in Cormier’s direction is rare enough to be news by itself.
Jones has been in a talkative mood all week, mostly about legacy and the things he didn’t do.
View post on X
In a sit-down with Prince St. Pizza on YouTube, clipped by Championship Rounds on X, he named Ilia Topuria as the first fighter he saw as a real threat to his own GOAT standing. “Honestly I thought that Ilia would be the first threat to being considered the greatest of all time. And then we saw what happened to him,” Jones said. That second sentence carries a lot of weight, and he left it there.
In the same Prince St. Pizza appearance, Jones said he turned down an offer to fight on the UFC White House card because the two sides couldn’t agree on terms. He owned it. “It was my decision. I could’ve fought, we just couldn’t come up to an agreement... It’s one of my small regrets that I have to live with forever.”
The Ngannou noise
Then there’s Jake Paul. On Monday, Paul posted on X asking whether Jones could request a release from the UFC, the way Shakur Stevenson did, so a Francis Ngannou fight could finally happen. “They already said they are never working with Francis. So let Jon fly and we can give the fans what they want,” Paul wrote, tagging both heavyweights.
View post on X
Jones reposted it, according to Championship Rounds. A repost isn’t a release request. It isn’t a no either, and Jones knows exactly how a repost reads.
Makhachev’s next move
As for the other guy Jones praised, Makhachev’s dance card is still blank. His manager told Ushatayka, via Championship Rounds, that a rumored January fight with Carlos Prates at UFC 336 in Toronto is nowhere near done. “As of now, it’s not close to becoming a reality. It’s all just rumors and talk. Negotiations are ongoing, but confirming he’ll fight on a certain date and against a certain opponent is still far from realistic.”
So Makhachev vs. Prates is talk for now, and anyone selling Toronto tickets on it is getting ahead of the paperwork.
View post on X
My take: compliments are the cheapest currency in this sport, and Jones is spending them freely because the more expensive stuff (the White House card, the Ngannou fight everybody has wanted for years) keeps slipping past him. Giving Cormier his flowers is a classy move, and I’ll take it. The line that stuck with me was the regret. A guy who says he’ll live with a missed fight forever and then reposts Jake Paul’s pitch for Ngannou is telling you what he wants next. Whether Dana White lets him go chase it is the only part that pays.
