Daniel Cormier still believes there is one arena where Jon Jones wants no part of him.
Not the Octagon, where their rivalry already produced one official Jones win at UFC 182 and one no-contest after the UFC 214 rematch was overturned. Cormier is talking about a mat, a short clock, and a rule set stripped down enough to expose who can actually wrestle when there is nowhere to hide.
Speaking during a Q&A at UFC Freedom 250, Cormier said talks had taken place for a late-year wrestling meeting with Jones at an unnamed event. According to the former UFC double champion and Olympic-level wrestler, the money was real, the bout would have lasted six minutes, and the offer crossed into seven figures for both men. His accusation was blunt: “He will not do it.”
Daniel Cormier says Jon Jones rejected seven-figure wrestling match
Cormier framed the proposed contest as something outside RAF, saying that promotion would not have the budget for the payday being discussed. The more serious offer, in his telling, came from another organization prepared to pay both men more than $1 million for a wrestling match. Cormier said he accepted the idea if Jones agreed to wrestle, then claimed Jones pushed away from that format once the details became uncomfortable.
The key dispute, as Cormier described it, was not whether the two old rivals could sell another confrontation. It was the scoring. Cormier said he believed a pure wrestling match would end in a lopsided technical result in his favor, and that Jones understood the risk of being visibly outclassed under points. When grappling was floated, Cormier said Jones wanted submission-only rules rather than a format where takedowns, control and positional work could decide the winner.
Why the rules matter more than the payday
That is the part of Cormier’s version that cuts deepest. Jones has long been one of MMA’s most complete clinch fighters, with trips, elbows, range management and opportunistic submissions all woven into his game. Cormier, though, was an elite freestyle wrestler before he became a UFC champion, and a six-minute points match would drag the conversation away from mixed martial arts greatness and into a narrower, harsher argument about wrestling craft.
- Cormier made the claim during a UFC Freedom 250 Q&A.
- He said both men were offered seven figures for six minutes.
- The event and organization behind the offer were not named.
- Jones has not publicly answered Cormier’s accusation.
Jon Jones silence leaves old UFC rivalry alive
Jones has not responded as of now, which leaves the story living entirely through Cormier’s account. That matters, because the rivalry has always run on competing versions of pride: Jones as the superior MMA fighter with the official win, Cormier as the decorated wrestler who still sees a specific weakness behind Jones’ broader greatness. Their recent time opposite each other on ALF Reality 3, the Russian spin on The Ultimate Fighter concept, appears to have dragged the bad blood back into public view rather than softened it.
The sporting stakes would be strange but real. A wrestling match would not rewrite either man’s UFC career, yet it would give Cormier a clean lane to win a chapter Jones has never had to defend under wrestling rules. For Jones, who retired from MMA after being left out of UFC Freedom 250, the risk is reputational more than competitive: lose badly in a niche ruleset and the clip lives forever, even if his MMA résumé remains untouched. For Cormier, the next step is simple only if Jones answers; without that, the story stays as an allegation, not a booked contest.
| Point | Current status |
|---|---|
| Proposed matchup | Daniel Cormier vs. Jon Jones in wrestling or grappling |
| Claimed purse | Seven figures for each man, per Cormier |
| Planned length | Six minutes, according to Cormier’s Q&A comments |
| Rules dispute | Cormier wanted points available; he says Jones preferred submissions only |
| Public response | Jones has not addressed the claim publicly |
| Rivalry background | Jones beat Cormier at UFC 182; their UFC 214 bout became a no-contest |
The frustration for fans is that this is exactly the kind of odd, late-career spectacle that would actually answer a question rather than merely cash in on nostalgia. Cormier is not asking to run back five rounds of MMA in his mid-40s; he is daring Jones into the one combat sport lane where Cormier believes the old score is still unsettled. For now, the only confirmed fact is that Cormier says negotiations happened and Jones has not publicly responded.
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