Cormier tells Jones to stop 'judging,' return to Octagon

Daniel Cormier thinks Jon Jones needs to resume his fighting career or shut up.

Jones, who hasn't competed in MMA in almost two years, was critical of last Saturday's UFC heavyweight title bout between Francis Ngannou and Ciryl Gane, saying he'd easily beat either fighter.

Cormier, a former UFC two-division champion and rival of Jones, questioned how valid that criticism is from the sidelines.

"Jon Jones needs to fight," Cormier said Tuesday on his "DC & RC" podcast.

"Right now, he's just talking. ... It's like, 'When are you going to fight?'" he added. "Because (as) bad as it was - Francis had a torn (MCL), Francis was hurt, Francis had a bad training camp, all these things - Francis still fought. So you can say, 'Well, they're not that good,' but ultimately, they're still in there doing their thing.

"Why aren't you in there doing your thing? You are one of the most talented mixed martial artists of all time. Why aren't you in there doing your thing against these guys (as) opposed to judging them?"

Cormier said that Jones may have a false sense of hope should he fight Ngannou down the road, as had been previously discussed. Ngannou tore his MCL and damaged his ACL three weeks before UFC 270, but he still secured the unanimous decision win.

"Look, if you're going to judge the apex predator that Francis is on last weekend, know that you're judging a wounded apex predator," Cormier added. "So, you may think that he's not as good now because of what you saw, but maybe you're just putting yourself up for a bigger disappointment when you do finally make that jump."