Daniel Cormier believes Jon Jones and Anderson Silva eliminated themsleves from GOAT conversation
Current UFC light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier believes that former promotional title holders Jon Jones and Anderson Silva have already eliminated themselves from the “GOAT” conversation.
Cormier, who is set to challenge current UFC heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic at next weekend’s blockbuster UFC 226 event, explained his reasoning during the UFC 226 media conference call on Thursday.
“Any time a guy does performance enhancing drugs and on multiple occasions, they eliminate themselves,” Cormier stated (as transcribed by Damon Martin of MMAWeekly). “So for as great as Anderson Silva was, he tested positive I think two times. Jones has tested positive two or three times. Those guys eliminate themselves.”
“DC”, who could easily make an argument for GOAT status with a win over Miocic next weekend, believes that fighters who have been busted for banned substances have basically been given a free pass in mixed martial arts, this while other sports such as baseball have proven to shun players for having being involved in performance enhancing drugs.
“When you start getting performance enhancers tied to your name, there’s no way around that. There’s no way around it, and I think that of all the sports, the people that pay the harshest price are the baseball players,” Cormier explained. “Because when you have negatives tied to your name, they deny you the ultimate vindication. The ultimate goal of a baseball player is to go to the Hall of Fame and these guys aren’t even getting close. The Mark McGwire’s, the Sammy Sosa’s, the Barry Bonds — those guys aren’t getting close because they have those bad things tied to their names. As a sport, I think MMA needs to evolve to the point that the punishment for having doing those things is your place within the sport should be challenged and should be questioned.”
Do you agree with Daniel Cormier that fighters with a past that involves performance enhancing drugs should be eliminated from GOAT and Hall of Fame discussions? Sound off PENN Nation!
