UFC middleweight champion and FOX analyst Michael Bisping previews UFC 214: Daniel Cormier vs. Jon Jones.
Saturday night, inside the Octagon in the middle of the Honda Center, UFC light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier and former champion Jon Jones will square off. It’s the potential culmination of a nearly three-year long feud, which could put to an end of the most heated and intense rivalries in UFC history.
The trash talk has been personal and the face-to-face meetings led to physical confrontations. Both men have acknowledged the animosity and emotions going into this fight. There is no doubt it’s real, but what impact is it having on the fight?
“Earlier on in my career, I used to try and build up the animosity in my mind, I used to think it would be helpful in my performance. But as I got older and wiser I realized that really being that emotional is a hindrance,” UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping said. “It’s not a good thing, you want to be cool, calm, and collected. If you’re in an emotional state, you’re never the best version of yourself. So how could you expect to perform in your chosen sport at the highest level.”
Bisping knows a thing or two about heated rivalries. He tormented Yoel Romero during his interim title fight at UFC 213, then verbally confronted Robert Whittaker in the cage afterward, though the latter lacked a true disdain and was more about selling a fight. Since the UFC 213 happenings, he has exchanged barbs with former champion Chris Weidman and even talked about a fight with Georges St-Pierre on his own Believe You Me Podcast.
All of this within the span of a month. If anyone is qualified to break down the battle of emotions and hatred raging between Cormier and Jones, it’s Bisping.
“Both of these guys are very emotional now, I don’t if it will affect them on the night. But I think being emotional isn’t a good thing,” said Bisping. “There is a lot of emotion going into this, it will be interesting to see who handles it the best. Jones is very angry, DC is very personal. I’m sure it’s going to be a very aggressive fight and a very exciting fight. Certainly a lot of emotion and only time will tell.”
It stands to reason that two fighters with the extensive combat sports backgrounds they possess will able to focus on the fight in the cage, if not initially, at some point during this long-anticipated rematch.
In a fight overflowing with narratives, a predominant concern for Jones is his inactivity. Since Cormier and Jones’ first fight at UFC 182 in January of 2015, Jones has fought just once, against Ovince Saint Preux at UFC 197 in April of 2016.
“You can see that the time away affected his fight against OSP, it wasn’t the Jones that was steamrolling through everybody back in the day,” Bisping remembered. “It just wasn’t a good performance. One theory is that it was ring rust. And of course, since then it’s been a good while. He’s only had one fight in about two-and-a-half years.
“Obviously, on the flip side, DC has been very active. The more you train, the more training camps you do, the better you get as a fighter. The two go hand-in-hand. Fighting, experience, training, all that stuff is going to be beneficial, so DC certainly has the advantage there.”
When deciding the edge in confidence, Jones holds all the cards. Not only did he win the first fight, he did so by out-wrestling Cormier, an Olympic-caliber wrestler. And most recently, MMA great Anderson Silva, who fought Cormier in Jones place at UFC 200, said Cormier has fear in his eyes.
A simple switch in tactics could be enough for Cormier to get the win.
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“He’s got use a lot of feints,” Bisping says with a confidence that suggests it’s obvious. “Feint with the shoulder and get Jones to react, then when Jones throws his reaction shot then it’s time for DC to attack.
“He needs to close the distance, and he did that the first fight but he was just charging forward with reckless abandon. Jon Jones knew what he was going to do.
“This time he still has to do that but he needs to be smarter about it. Throw feints, get Jon to react and then DC can do his work.”