Jon Jones and Phil Davis will both compete at UFC 172 this weekend (Sat., April 26, 2014), a pay-per-view (PPV) event planned to hit Baltimore Arena in Baltimore, Maryland.
But, they won't be fighting one another, as Jones will defend his Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) light heavyweight title against Glover Teixeira in the main event, while Davis will take on Anthony Johnson in the co-featured fight of the night.
Nonetheless, if you tuned in to today's (April 21, 2014) media conference call (listen to full video replay here), you would have thought "Bones" and "Mr. Wonderful" were fighting one another, seeing as how the two talented 205-pounders engaged in a war of words.
Check out how it all unfolded (via MMA Fighting):
"Jon Jones said I was going to break him apart like a sugar cookie, man, that's not exactly correct. I promised I was going to break him apart like a sugar cookie. Big difference."
Jones, was quick to question the threat promise:
"Yo Phil, that wasn't very nice, man. What's up with you Phil? When did we become like this?"
After trading jabs at one another, Davis eventually found a way to take it back to UFC 165, where his teammate -- Alexander Gustafsson -- dragged Jones into deep water, coming ever-so close to dethroning him.
In fact, according to Davis, "The Mauler" should be the rightful champion seeing as how Jones had no answer for the "seven kinds of smoke" the Swede was throwing his way.
"It's funny you should ask, because I was going to chime in. Here's what happened. Jon Jones came out doing his regular deal and Alex -- because Alex and I, we train together and we went over some things to do -- I said, listen man, what you really need to do is you need to strong arm him like an American and hit him with a back hand pimp slap. I'm telling you right now, Alexander threw seven different kinds of smoke at this dude, Jon Jones didn't know up from down when he was fighting Alex. He didn't know what hit him. He didn't know why he hit him -- why he was hitting so hard. I honestly still don't really understand really how [Alex] lost, but I will say this -- Jon Jones came back the last two rounds, fourth and fifth rounds, came back like a champion. Did he do enough to win? Absolutely not. But, I'm going to tell you this, seven different kinds of smoke. Jon Jones was one fire, seven different kinds of smoke he had."
If you didn't catch "You, Me and Dupree," then the "seven kinds of smoke" reference probably went over your head.
Oh, but Davis wasn't done bashing Jones ... not by a long shot:
"The last time you tried to handle somebody in the striking department, Alex hit you so many times in the right eye you almost turned into a pirate. I wouldn't be so sure you can be better than Glover standing up because let me tell you ... he throws heat. What are you going to do?"
In the end, Jones chose to take the high road instead of "belittling" himself by engaging in the war of words with Davis, but not before he threw in a few verbal jabs "Mr. Wonderful's" way:
"I think if anything Phil's embarrassing himself with all the antics. But, it's what he decided to do today. You know, I'm a champion. I'm a champion, and I fight the top dogs and my whole career has been in the fast lane. I am not going to sit here and belittle myself by entertaining Phil. At first I thought it was funny, but it's just silly. And I'm fighting Glover, and he's fighting Anthony Johnson. I really need to stay focused on Glover, and Glover's a great challenge to me.I just think when you talk like that, and you be so goofy, it puts a lot of pressure on you. I mean, what if he goes out there and gets caught with one of those high kicks from Anthony Johnson and gets knocked out? It's going to be really embarrassing to talk so much trash to me and then get knocked out by Anthony Johnson. So I'm going to keep my mouth shut and stay focused for what I'm here for, and that's Glover."
In addition, Davis said he will no longer be the quiet contender sitting in the corner, planning to blow up Dana White's inbox and request a title fight after he gets through "Rumble."
And it's safe to say Davis hopes Jones is still the champion after Saturday night. If not, then he'll be more than happy to clean up whatever mess is left of Jones once Teixeira gets through with him.