Daniel Cormier will finally get his chance to put hands on bitter rival and current Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) light heavyweight champion Jon Jones when the two go toe-to-toe at UFC 178 on Sept. 27, 2014 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
A fight that came to be after Jon's original opponent, Alexander Gustafsson, suffered an untimely knee injury in training, one that knocked him out of the much-anticipated rematch against "Bones."
Speaking of knee injuries, "DC" himself was all set to go under the knife to take care of his own issues, but opted out of the procedure to see if it felt better on its own. And after partaking in his final wrestling match at the UFC Fan Expo earlier this month (details), Cormier was confident surgery would not be needed.
When asked if he was worried about his knee heading into the title fight, Cormier said he wasn't, despite the fact that "Bones" is known for his oblique kick; a move Quinton Jackson said should be banned from the sport.
Cormier, however, doesn't share "Rampage's" sentiment and revealed on The MMA Hour that he expects Jones to target the injury, and if he opts not too, the former Olympian will be very disappointed.
He explains:
"If he didn't, I'd be very disappointed. As a competitor, I'd be very disappointed in Jon Jones if he didn't. As a competitor he's had injuries too, that I need to target and I am going to."
Jones has often drawn criticism from the MMA community -- as well as other entertainers -- for what they deem as a two-faced person "Bones" has a habit of displaying, thanks to his Instagram and Twitter posts.
Cormier found out firsthand that Jones isn't shy about expressing himself on on the popular social networks, but found it odd that "Bones" decided to target him personally with his "come to daddy" tweet when he never did that to his previous foes.
Still, Cormier say's he's actually a fan of Jon's "Twitter persona" and says he should keep doing what he's doing and not try to protect an image of himself that was tarnished long ago.
He explains:
"I think it's good. You know, I said time and again that I didn't believe he should try and protect an image that doesn't even exist anymore. That image he put out when he started fighting before, that's gone. People saw through that. People know that he is not this person he put off he was at the beginning of his career because of the things he's had to deal with just in the media. He had to grow up a lot faster than most people did in this sport because he's so good. So, I like his heel persona. It just tells me that he's a bit uncomfortable because this is out of character for Jon Jones. He doesn't directly go at his opponents as he has with me. He's out of character a bit. I'm not in his mind or under his skin, but I know that he knows that he's got a real fight ahead of him on September 27. So maybe he's trying to use mind tricks on me to affect me, but that it is so petty and childish. You can not use mind games on me. I've dealt with this stuff for so long in my life, that mind tricks wont ever work."
Jones is also known for having a distinct height and reach advantage over the rest of the 205-pound division, and on Sept. 27, that advantage will indeed be present as Cormier is much shorter than the champion.
As "DC" declares, that will have no bearing on the outcome of the fight.
He explains:
"You just got to watch and see. I believe in myself 110 percent. There is a badder man out there for everyone of us. As good as Jon Jones is, there is somebody that can beat Jon Jones. I believe I am that guy. And there is somebody out there that can beat me. I don't know who that is, it could be Rashad Evans, it could be Glover Teixeira, it could be one of those guys that are just better than I am. But I believe that on Sept. 27, reach and height, none of that is going to matter because I believe I have the ability to beat Jon and i have the ability to compete with Jon and the confidence in knowing that I can get the job done. This is the first time you have two undefeated guys fighting for the championship. This is a big deal, man, This is the type of fight we need in MMA to show that guys can sustain being undefeated for a long time, get to the top of the sport and fight each other for the ultimate prize. This is a big deal. I can feel it, I know Jon can feel it and I can't wait for it."
While technically "Bones" isn't undefeated thanks to the disqualification he suffered in 2009, thanks to some illegal elbows he delivered to Matt Hamill's dome; "DC" still considers Jones undefeated and labeled him the best pound-for-pound fighter the sport of MMA has ever seen.
But on Sept. 27, 2014, Cormier plans to stop the champion's impressive run and begin one of his own.