Daniel Cormier Won’t Fight Jon Jones Next, Anthony Johnson Agrees

Those waiting for another matchup between Daniel Cormier and Jon Jones will be waiting quite a bit longer, if a recent Tweet by the champion is to be believed.

As Anthony Johnson and Glover Texieira prepare to go head to head tonight at UFC 202, Cormier tweeted that he would face the winner of that fight — not Jones — whenever he returns to the cage next.

“I’m fighting winner of glover vs. Rumble,” Cormier tweeted. “Don’t care how this plays out.”

Johnson (21-5) and Teixeira (25-4) currently are the first- and second-ranked contenders behind Cormier. Johnson knocked Teixeira out in short order last night at UFC 202, and noted that he also thought Jon Jones needed to get in line. 

“Daniel is beyond that, I’m beyond it. Daniel wants to fight me and I want to fight him. As far as Jon, he can sit back and wait,” Johnson said.

Jones defeated Cormier by unanimous decision in their first meeting at UFC 182 on Jan. 3, 2015. Jones was stripped of the light heavyweight title later that year and suspended indefinitely for his involvement in a hit-and-run accident. Cormier defeated Johnson at UFC 187 to become the new champion. 

After Jones was reinstated, he and Cormier were slated to have a rematch for the title at UFC 200, but three days before the fight, Jones was removed because he was flagged for a potential out-of-competition doping violation by the USADA. Later, it was reported that Jones tested positive for a pair of anti-estrogen agents, which are used to help with recovery from post-steroid use.

However, earlier this week, UFC president Dana White said that Jones “did not take the supplement everybody thought he took” and suggested a return to the UFC could be on the near horizon for the man who once sat atop the promotion’s pound-for-pound rankings.