One thing is clear on this topic, Jon Jones has always hated Daniel Cormier. But why? How did it start? When considering the first question you first have to look at their athletic backgrounds. They both came from amateur wrestling backgrounds. . . Jon Jones was a state champion in Upstate New York and Daniel Cormier was a three time state champion in Louisiana. Both were Junior College national champions, with Jones moving to Morrisville State College and Daniel Cormier to Oklahoma State University before moving on to a successful freestyle wrestling career, then to MMA. Jon Jones dropped out of Morrisville State in order to start his MMA career while Daniel Cormier went on the be an NCAA place winner, notably losing in the NCAA finals to Cael Sanderson who is one of the greatest American wrestlers of all time. As stated, Cormier further went on to have a successful freestyle wrestling career, winning and placing high in many international competitions, including a fourth place in the 2004 Olympic Games. With this brief look at the amateur wrestling careers of Jones and Cormier it is not difficult to theorize where Jon Jones’ hatred of Daniel Cormier stems from.

Daniel Cormier’s achievements may have been a sore spot with Jones. No matter what Jones might have to say on this matter, it is not a stretch to assume that a competitive athlete with any level of talent and success wants to go on to further achievements in their chosen sport. Daniel Cormier made it as far as the olympics and even a fourth place finish and I am sure that Jones––at least on some level and somewhere in the back of his mind––would have liked to have achieved that level of success in wrestling. It is something that D.C. would always have over him, even though Jones has beaten him two times in the UFC. There may be another more psychologically-oriented reason for Jones’ hatred of D.C..

Let us just hypothesize for a minute. Jon Jones has been flagged by USADA testing more than once, and so we can speculate that he has been a PED user, at least throughout parts of his MMA career. Perhaps Jones has guilt over the fact that he had to use PED’s to achieve his MMA success, whereas D.C. has a clean record of testing, including during his career in international wrestling competition? Human nature does not lie, it is consistent, and even though a person may not openly acknowledge their inner feelings about any form of cheating the system––and they may not even be consciously aware of them––there are always underlying thoughts and emotions that cannot be fully ignored.

In the end one thing is irrefutable, Jon Jones hates Daniel Cormier and there must be a root cause for it. I stand by my primary hypothesis, that Daniel Cormier achieved more in the sport that both he and Jon Jones chose as their primary athletic pursuit throughout their earlier days of competition. Cormier has always been referred to as one of the best wrestlers in the UFC and even though Jones has an impressive resume in amateur wrestling, he has never received as much attention for those achievements in comparison, and it is likely that this will always be a thorn in his side and would probably perpetuate Jones’ hatred of Cormier. The many ways in which underlying (unconscious) thoughts can be manifested cannot be denied, just ask any proponent of Sigmund Freud.