If Daniel Cormier was in Jon Jones’ position today, Tom Aspinall would have already had his opportunity to unify the UFC heavyweight title.

Cormier says his competitive nature wouldn’t have allowed him to play around like Jones (28-1 MMA, 22-1 UFC) is currently doing with Aspinall (15-3 MMA, 8-1 UFC), who has been waiting since November 2023 for a chance to upgrade his interim title to undisputed. UFC CEO Dana White recently said Jones agreed to fight Aspinall, but he was also unaware of recent social media posts from Jones that indicated he would be willing to vacate the title. Meanwhile, Aspinall has vocalized that he’s ready to just move on.

Despite retiring in 2020, Cormier and Jones still keep their rivalry alive by going back and forth with words instead of fists. In the latest reply to Jones’ comments, Cormier offered plenty of praise for his former foe’s legacy. However, while Cormier said Jones has already built a resume that is set in stone as one of the greatest ever, as the current heavyweight titleholder, he still has a responsibility to the division and the interim champion to unify the title.

“All this other stuff that’s going on around the fight – I mean, you’re talking about me, you’re talking about Francis (Ngannou), you’re talking about Chael (Sonnen), you’re talking about all these things and almost ignoring the right thing,” Cormier said on his YouTube channel. “The right thing is to go fight this kid. If you beat him, which is a real thing, and a real likely scenario, you can then stick it to everyone like you’ve done on so many occasions and tell ’em about it.

“Nothing feels better to a guy like Jon Jones to be able to beat the guy that you thought was going to get him, and then him going, ‘What did I say to you?’ It’s sweeter than any title or anything else you can give this man, but he’s gotta be willing to take that chance to go and fight this dude.”

Cormier acknowledges that the potential title unification bout could go either way. The UFC Hall of Famer could see Aspinall ending the fight quickly by knockout, but also envisions a scenario in which Jones drags Aspinall into deep waters to methodically wear him down as he has done with many other opponents throughout his career.

Jones’ mentality is what is perplexing to Cormier, as he would handle this situation very differently if he were still an active fighter holding the title.

“Not everybody gets to retire – Jon Jones will get to retire from fighting, but if he doesn’t fight this guy, then that’s just him quitting,” Cormier said. “There’s one real fight for him and he’s not so old and washed up that he can’t take it.

“… I can tell you guys on good authority, if I was still fighting today, and I was still the heavyweight champion, and Tom Aspinall was the No. 1 contender, I would have already fought him, 1,000 percent. The mindset that I carried throughout my fight career, knowing how dangerous, it would have done nothing but excite me to see someone standing across the octagon that could potentially beat me, or knock my ass out. That would make me train harder, smarter, and be more prepared than I ever could have been. That’s what that would have done to me. What it’s doing to Jon Jones is very disturbing and very hard for me to understand. Becasue in my mind, this guy is a fighter. I’ve seen him do it time and time again. It’s a very weird situation.”

This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Daniel Cormier: Jon Jones ‘quitting’ if he doesn’t unify UFC title