Jon Jones says he and Daniel Cormier are not the 'archenemies' people think: 'We'd actually make great friends'

For Jon Jones, his heated rivalry with Daniel Cormier is now a thing of the past. Or so he says.

Former champions Jones and Cormier were part of arguably the biggest rivalry in UFC history, competing against each other twice in title fights. Jones won both – with his knockout win at UFC 214 overturned to a no contest after testing positive for performance-enhancing drugs.

The two engaged in plenty of verbal altercations, as well as physical, but now that Cormier is retired, Jones (26-1 MMA, 20-1 UFC) welcomes him to commentate his return against Ciryl Gane (11-1 MMA, 8-1 UFC) for the vacant heavyweight March 4 at UFC 285.

Not only that, but Jones thinks he and Cormier could even be friendly moving forward.

“I do believe that Daniel will do a great job. All the guys do a really good job at being unbiased,” Jones said on “Unlocking the Cage” with Jimmy Smith. “The UFC hires these guys because they’re professionals and, yeah, I think he’s going to do a great job if he gets the job. Daniel has commentated for me before, I believe he was in the corner when I fought Ovince Saint Preux and did a great job. He’s not biased.

“People try to make Daniel and I out to be these absolute archenemies. If you look at competitive athletes throughout history, they all come around. Mike Tyson and (Evander) Holyfield, they all come around. It’s just competition. Outside of the sport, I have no ill will toward Daniel. I think he’s a very stand-up individual, and I think we’d actually make great friends if we were ever to sit down in front of each other and really just chat it out.”

Cormier admitted Jones’ initial tweet inviting him to commentate his fight was nice but said he was unsure how to take the statement. Now that Jones has doubled down on burying the hatchet, perhaps we’ll get Cormier’s fight week check-in between the two before UFC 285.

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 285.