Daniel Cormier doesn't buy Jon Jones' claim that he was secretly recorded discussing his arthritis at a bare knuckle event. Speaking on the Daniel Cormier Show, the former UFC double champion laid out his case for why Jones orchestrated the entire leak himself.
Jones recently addressed the viral video, saying the person who recorded him was wearing Meta glasses and that the conversation was meant to be private.
"It is true. I do have arthritis and the kid that leaked that was an absolute [expletive]," Jones said. "I was talking to some guys in confidential and he had one of those Meta glasses on... That wasn't for everybody to hear."
Cormier wasn't having it.
DC Knows How Meta Glasses Work
Cormier pointed out that Meta glasses are nearly impossible to miss up close — his own coach wears them.
"It's hard to hide that you're being recorded with Meta glasses," Cormier said. "If I am 50 yards away from you and I'm recording you, okay, you may not be able to tell, but if I'm two to three feet away like the kid was, they got a white light on the side of the glasses. The moment they start recording, there's a white light on the side of those glasses that tells you that they are recording. How could he have missed that?"
Athletes Always Know When They're Being Recorded
Cormier added that anyone who has spent years in the public eye develops an instinct for spotting cameras — something Jones has dealt with for over a decade.
"When you've been in the public eye, you build this almost sixth sense as to when people are recording you," Cormier said. "Because when you're around or in the public spotlight, the people around you even build a way to figure out that you're being recorded. It's just the way it is."
DC's Theory: Jones Leaked It on Purpose
Cormier laid out his full theory — that Jones deliberately fed the injury information to an influencer so it would go public while maintaining plausible deniability.
"I believe that information like that, if it's that close to the vest, you don't share it with a random," Cormier said. "I don't know that anything he does isn't intended to be taken in the way that it's taken. It feels like everything he does has a purpose. So, I don't believe it and I don't think you should because I don't think that he was unaware of the video. I think that Jon Jones knew what he was doing."
"I think that he wanted people to know that he's injured and I think that's exactly the way that he wanted it to happen by giving it to an influencer and that influencer put it on the internet and then he could feign ignorance and go, 'Oh my god, I got caught.' Not true."
Why Leak It? Because It Might Actually Be Over.
Cormier's skepticism about the recording doesn't extend to the injuries themselves. He said watching Jones at a recent celebrity football game changed his mind about the severity of the damage.
"I think for the first time, I actually believe that he might have some true issues with his hips because I was watching him play football at that celebrity thing and when Dwight Howard ran past him, there's no way — there's no way that he was actually trying and Dwight Howard was able to go past him like that," Cormier said.
"I believe Jon Jones really is dealing with sustained injuries from a long sustained career in combat sports where knees and elbows and kicks were such a massive part of his game, the wrestling. Sports from a young age takes a toll on the body to anyone. I truly believe that."
'Get Ready for a Day Without Jones in Fighting'
Cormier connected the dots — if Jones is controlling the narrative around his physical decline, it's because the end of his legendary career is approaching.
"I think that people should now start to get ready for a day where they don't have Jones in fighting. I don't think you're going to have him much longer in this sport because I don't think the guy's body is going to hold up," Cormier said. "It's a sad thing because in real time, you could see him starting to come to accept that all those days are over. In real time, we're watching him come to the acceptance that it's over."
"Once he's done, that whole generation of fighters might be done. Everybody's gone. All those great guys are gone and he's one of the ones that is left and he was the super young guy that was fighting all of us and everybody's done except for Jones and it seems like that day is coming for him to be done too."