Daniel Cormier’s attitude to Jon Jones’ UFC 214 steroid test failure has been nothing short of incredible.
The UFC light heavyweight champion has requested his fans give Jones some breathing room in regards to this test, until his rival has his due process under USADA’s rules. To give such quarter to a man whom with Cormier’s had an embittered past is impressive, and shows a noble ‘championship’ attitude.
But then, UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping sees it differently.
“Listen, I really like Daniel Cormier,” Bisping said, speaking on his podcast ‘Believe You Me’. “He’s a great guy, but that was me mockingly throwing up there. It’s like, come on, man. DC, say what’s on your mind because that isn’t what’s on your mind. What’s on your mind is, ‘Jon go fuck yourself, you fucking prick’.”
“I like DC. DC’s a standup guy and God bless him, maybe — well, he’s not a better human being than me — that’s what I was going to say: maybe he’s a better human being than me. No, he’s not, but maybe he has more sympathy for his opponent than I do because that’s not what I would have said. If someone fucking tests positive and kicks me in the head and knocks me out and takes my belt in front of the world, I’m not going to bang on about compassion. I’m gonna say, ‘You’re a piece of shit and you’ve got no place being in the sport.’ Especially after testing positive before and all the other things that happened.”
It’s well known that Bisping has a history with opponents who owned sketchy blood levels. The British champion went through a run of number one contender bouts against foes who were using testosterone replacement therapy — something of a loop hole available in mixed martial arts some years back. He didn’t emerge from those bouts unscathed.
After facing Vitor Belfort, Bisping’s eye was left permanently damaged, potentially putting his career at risk. Perhaps it was that experience that leaves Bisping with such a short leash for steroid users in the sport today.
“The thing is, you’ve got to remember in that fight, DC was winning that fight,” Bisping said. “I thought DC won the first round and again, I thought DC was winning it and then that head kick changed everything and that head kick wouldn’t have been delivered with the speed or ferocity had steroids not been involved. Now of course, like DC said: due process need to take its course but the writing on the wall is that he was on steroids and that kick wouldn’t have been as strong had steroids not been involved.
“Therefore, he was cheating, he knocked him out, he embarrassed him, he took his belt, he beat him up in front of the world, who knows if that’s gonna have a lasting effect on his body? So I’m sorry. Good for you Daniel Cormier but I wouldn’t say that. I’d be saying, ‘Screw this guy. Screw this guy’.”
“DC doesn’t know what the lasting effects of being knocked out like that are gonna be. This isn’t a game. It isn’t a game and you don’t get knocked out and all of the sudden come back around and everything be the same again. It has a lasting effect on your brain. That substance inside your skull gets bounced around like crazy and damage is done to your brain. That’s why you see these fighters years later slurring their words, forgetting things, GSP saying he’s been abducted by aliens, because it’s real. It really happens and I would not be defending Jon Jones right now.”
