You have to feel for Daniel Cormier.
If it wasn't for two one opponent and two fights, Daniel Cormier could well be considered the greatest martial artist ever.
He has beaten former UFC champions Josh Barnett, Frank Mir and Anderson Silva, legends such as Bigfoot Silva and Dan Henderson as well dangerous contenders in their prime Alexander Gustafsson and Anthony Johnson, the latter he beat in the exact same way twice.
However, his hand has never been raised against Jon Jones. He has never even come close to knowing what beating the greatest ever feels like.
The first time DC lost to Jones, he made it fairly competitive. Jones dominated his way to a unanimous decision victory, but he had to work for it. In the rematch, Cormier actually showed a lot of improvements. He landed some good shots, he was moving well, some people even thought that he nicked the second round and then boom... a hold.
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In the rematch, Cormier actually showed a lot of improvements. He landed some good shots, he was moving well, some people even thought that he nicked the second round and then boom... a holy headkick from Hell followed by some ground and pound resulted in the first knockout loss of his career.
He was left a broken man inside the cage. He floundered around the Octagon not fully compos mentis then he began blubbering into the microphone held up by Joe Rogan. It was the most devastating loss of his career, and it could soon have an asterisk beside it.
On the first day of his family vacation in Hawaii, Cormier found out that Jones
failed an in-competition drug test for UFC 214's main event. After the weigh-ins in July, he pissed hot. The following night, he brutally knocked out DC to reclaim his belt.
UFC president Dana White spoke to Cormier about the Jones' latest controversy not long after the news broke, as he explained at the Dana White's Tuesday Night Contender Series
media scrum in Las Vegas.
"(Cormier said)'Holy shit. This is crazy.' He's in Hawaii right now with his family on vacation and he couldn't believe it either. He felt the same way that I did. Blown away."
However, White wasn't the first person to break the news to DC.
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Airel Helwani was the first person to inform Cormier, as he revealed on MMA Fighting's Jon Jones drug-test failure
reaction video.
"Once the news broke a couple of hours ago, I called Daniel Cormier. Daniel Cormier's in Hawaii with his family on vacation right before his kids start school. He had no idea about the news."
Judging by Helwani's description of how the conversation went down, Cormier became hysterical on the other end of the line. He just couldn't process what he had been told.
"He kept saying to me, 'You're lying, you're lying.' He asked me to swear on my kid's life. He said to me that he was shaking. He said that he had no idea what to make of all this and had to call me back. I called him back and he said that I'm still trying to process all this."
Jones could potentially be suspended for four years over this positive drug test, so the worst part about it for Cormier is that even if the last fight changes to a No Contest, he may never get the opportunity to complete the trilogy.
