UFC’s Jones offers verbal jabs, Cormier not biting

Jon Jones referred Thursday to his 2013 fight against Alexander Gustafsson as a nightmare.

Jones successfully defended his Ultimate Fighting Championship light heavyweight title that night, but after listening to him recount the bout, one might think he had lost.

He said the experience is one of several reasons he will emerge victorious when he defends the belt against undefeated Daniel Cormier on Saturday in the main event of UFC 182 at the MGM Grand Garden.

“I got cut in the first round, blood leaking into my eye the whole time,” Jones said. “The crowd was just booing me to the best of their ability. They were cheering him on so hard. My cardio wasn’t near where it had to be. It was a nightmare that fight. But I’m glad I went through it. I’m a better athlete for it. I train better. I take things more seriously. It was a great experience. It was like losing without losing.”

That’s a feeling Cormier has yet to truly endure during his professional career. The two-time Olympic wrestler has dominated all comers since turning to mixed martial arts, never so much as losing a round.

But Cormier, 35, insists he’s prepared for adversity in the cage. Several of his training partners at American Kickboxing Academy in San Jose, Calif., are elite fighters, including heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez, and it would be impossible to avoid unfavorable situations.

“I believe when I do face adversity, I’ll be able to fight through it,” Cormier said. “I believe I’ll be OK. Or at least I hope so. I hope I don’t fold. You prepare for adversity, but how do you really prepare yourself to get knocked down or to be stuck in the submission outside of what you do day to day? So I don’t think I’ve really thought about that. I think you have to stay positive in your training when you’re preparing for something so big.”

Whether Jones, 27, is playing mind games or truly has heard people speak ill of the Olympian, he’s confident Cormier will crumble Saturday.

The champion quickly points to times when Cormier has fallen short in the biggest moments of his career as examples.

Cormier took silver in the 2001 NCAA wrestling championships and finished fourth at the 2004 Olympics. Jones was also quick to note six of Cormier’s 10 career collegiate losses came to Cael Sanderson, widely considered to be the greatest college wrestler ever.

“We’ll see how he handles difficulty,” Jones said. “I heard through the grapevine in the wrestling community that he’s quit quite a few times. The guy lost to Sanderson like six times. He’s a guy who takes second place a lot, you know what I mean? He says things like he embraces the grind, but I hear he’s the guy in his wrestling days that would fake injuries and cry at practice. He’s the guy who quit so many times. I’m excited to see what he does this time. He says he lost the NCAAs and he lost the Olympics because he was meant to win this belt. That doesn’t even sound right.

“Anyways, I hear he’s a quitter, and I’m excited to see if I can make him quit.”

Cormier wouldn’t bite, except to say everything that has happened has prepared him for this opportunity.

“I have been the bridesmaid before,” he said. “I’ve accepted that. I’ve accepted that as part of my past. I’m not thinking like that anymore. But he’s right. I have fallen short in major competitions before, but I’ve had those experiences, and it took a whole lot of winning to be able to fall short at the level I’ve fallen short at.”

If coming up just short of a national championship and Olympic medal are to be considered failure, it hasn’t affected Cormier’s confidence.

“I think it boils down to belief,” Cormier said. “Belief that this can be done. A lot of times people don’t believe, people don’t believe when they’re staring at a hill that may be higher or a mountain that seems that it can be climbed. I think it’s belief. Believing in yourself, believing in your skills, believing in your team, believing in everything that you’ve done to this point.

“Believing that is all enough. It all was done to get this job Saturday night. To get it done on Saturday night you have to believe. And that’s something I have. I have a lot of belief in myself, and I have a lot of belief in this matchup.”

The fight headlines a pay-per-view card airing live at 7 p.m.

Contact reporter Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com or 702-224-5509. Follow him on Twitter: @adamhilllvrj.