The MMA Hour hosted by Ariel Helwani is rarely uneventful, but when we learned that both Daniel Cormier and Jon Jones would be appearing on this week's episode just days after the news broke that Cormier would be forced to withdraw from the main event at UFC 197 due to injury, it became unmissable.
Cormier was the first guest on the show, and he told Helwani over the phone that he believed Ovince Saint Preux, the man who is replacing him in the Jon Jones fight, has a chance to become the champ, but only if he trains with Daniel Cormier's team at the American Kickboxing Academy.
Everybody has a shot, but I think Ovince has a better shot, but it's up to him to take it, and that's by coming here [to train with AKA].
We'll open our doors to him, to come and train at the American Kickboxing Academy, I don't care what happens in the future, I can't train with Ovince but I've got a guy named Cain Velasquez that can train with him, I've got a guy named Luke Rockhold that can train with him.. We've got everything in place, where he can just take my training camp for the next few weeks.
We will take care of it, we'll fly Ovince and his team out here, we'll put him up and give him a place to stay, because no-one in the gym wants to see Jon Jones not have to fight a tough fight on April 23rd.
Ariel Helwani, taken aback by the statement somewhat, then asked DC to confirm what he had said, to which Cormier replied:
I'll be one of his coaches. Listen, nobody wants to fight Jon Jones worse than I do, so if I can live through Ovince on April 23rd then I will live through Ovince on April 23rd.
Some will no doubt interpret that offer as Cormier wanting Saint Preux to do his dirty work for him, but in reality it is Cormier not wanting to waste the incredible camp he has set up, with the likes of Rockhold and Velasquez on hand, to take Jon Jones down.
OSP is unlikely to accept the offer, not least because he surely has his own coaches and partners in mind for his preparation, and ignoring the fact that AKA has a worryingly high amount of training camp injuries, but should he defeat Jon Jones then he would have to fight Daniel Cormier in the future.
Still, it shows just how much Cormier hates Jones, as if we didn't know that already. You can't help but feel that we were robbed of one hell of an entertaining TV moment in the 'counterpunch' that was supposed to air this week:
