Jon Jones and Daniel Cormier finding plenty of ways to create pre-fight interest

Jon Jones, right, posing with Daniel Cormier (Photo: Fattimenews.com)

The Ultimate Fighter Nations: Saliba v Theodorou

By Kyle Hutchison twitter instagram

During a promotional event for UFC 178 on Aug. 5, Jon Jones and Daniel Cormier engaged in a brawl that resulted in a broken stage and bad publicity for the UFC.

The fight began when Jones pushed his head into Cormier’s, and the former Olympic wrestler retaliated by pushing the UFC light heavyweight champion back. Jones then charged Cormier by throwing a hail of punches.

In the scuffle, Cormier fell off the back of the stage and knocked down the backdrop to reveal the MGM Grand Lobby. Several people pulled Jones off of Cormier while several others forced Cormier away from the action. Jones stayed to give the crowd an extra show by yelling into the audience before being escorted out.

The fighting wasn’t finished as Jon Jones took to twitter to insult his opponent. In one tweet Jones asked Cormier “Come on [Daniel Cormier] where was your takedown defense?”

That wasn’t the end as Jones followed it up by tweeting “I put you on your back in six seconds.” Cormier responded by tweeting “I got some [take down] defense for you. Don’t ever put [your] dirty face on me again.”

Soon after they were both featured live on SportsCenter to apologize and promote UFC 178. As you can imagine, there was some nice trash talk. Jones remained calm throughout the interview while Cormier repeatedly said Jones was acting “fake.”

Dana White has yet to comment on the brawl but took to twitter to show his displeasure by tweeting “I just landed in Bora Bora for my first vacation in a while and it’s starting off perfect!!! @dc_mma and @JonnyBones.”

The UFC has not commented either while the NAC (Nevada Athletic Commission) has requested video of the event to discipline both fighters. No doubt a suspension awaits them; the question is how long?

UFC 178 was supposed to feature the much awaited rematch between Jon Jones and Alexander Gustafsson. Gustafsson had surgery on his knee and was quickly replaced with the next in line to fight the champion, Daniel Cormier.

Chris Robinson can be reached at khutche@udel.edu

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