Cormier reveals he turned down Manuwa fight: 'It needs to be Jones'
After years of intense rivalry with Jon Jones, Daniel Cormier could only envision his next title defense coming against the only man in UFC history to take him down inside the Octagon.
Cormier revealed Monday to Ariel Helwani on "The MMA Hour" that the UFC first offered him a fight with top light-heavyweight contender Jimi Manuwa, but he turned it down in favor of pushing UFC president Dana White for the long-awaited rematch with Jones.
"They offered me the Manuwa fight for July 29 in Anaheim," Cormier said, according to Danny Segura of MMAfighting.com. "A week after I fought 'Rumble' (Johnson), Dana called me. I was on my way to Kansas City, and Manuwa was in his office and he goes, 'you versus Manuwa in Anaheim,' and I said, 'well, eh,' and he said, 'what's wrong,' and I go, 'it needs to be Jones, make it happen.'
"And I badgered him and I badgered him, and I go, 'tell me he's ready to go,' and he's like, 'I'm talking to him.' So I go, 'tell me he's going to do it,' and he goes, 'well, I'm talking to him, we're going to get this figured out.' And after about a week of me just badgering him, Dana goes, 'DC calm down, I'm working on it.' And finally it was Jones. It had to be Jones. Ariel, I want fights that get me going.
"'Rumble' Johnson, it was like, 'is he really going to do it this time, can he get one on me and knock me out?' So that's the stuff that gets my juices going. Can Jon Jones do what he did last time and beat me again? That's what get my juices going, or otherwise I'll just do TV, you know? They tell me, 'you got to fight Jimi Manuwa,' and I’m like, 'for what? This dude has no chance, come on.'"
Jones defeated Cormier at UFC 182, but saw his title taken away in 2015 after a hit-and-run accident. Cormier won the vacant belt and has dominated the division ever since. The two were scheduled to headline at the historic UFC 200, but Jones dropped out due to a failed drug test and his suspension for it ends on July 6.
Despite the setbacks, the light-heavyweight champion expects UFC 214 to be a pay-per-view hit.
"We did really well last time and I know the numbers we did were really, really well last time, and that was without help, so I think we'll do pretty good," Cormier said.