"I try to give him a hand shake" - Jon Jones on his futile attempts at squashing beef with Daniel Cormier

Jon Jones has not entered the octagon since March 2023 when he defeated Ciryl Gane via first-round submission at UFC 285 to capture the vacant heavyweight title. He will make his highly-anticipated return this weekend as he faces Stipe Miocic at UFC 309 in a bout that was originally scheduled for last November.

'Bones' recently revealed that he is hopeful he can squash his feud with long-time rival Daniel Cormier. Speaking at the UFC 309 press conference, the heavyweight champion claimed:

"Yeah, I would love to bury that hatchet with DC. You know, literally every time I see him, I try to give him a smile, I try to give him a handshake and I don't think - I just recently found out he doesn't like that very much. So, I think I'll just give him a little friendly wave from a distance from now on."

Jones continued:

"That's all over for me a long time ago. I'm sure there's a lot of guys, a lot of former opponents, that really don't like me and that's just part of doing what I do."

Check out Jon Jones' comments on attempting to bury the hatchet with Daniel Cormier below:

The two fighters shared the octagon twice with the light heavyweight title on the line.

Jones won the first bout, which took place at UFC 182 in 2015, via unanimous decision. He knocked out Cormier with a third-round head kick when they rematched at UFC 214 two years later. However, the result was later overturned to a no contest. 'DC' has shared that he has no plans to end the nearly decade long feud.

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Gordon Ryan defends Jon Jones amid ducking allegations

Jon Jones has shared that a bout with Alex Pereira is likely the only fight that could persuade him to continue his mixed martial arts career after UFC 309. After some fans attempted to accuse Jones of ducking Tom Aspinall, Gordon Ryan took to Instagram to defend the heavyweight champion, stating:

"@jonnybones entered the @ufc 16 years ago. He's beaten every single person the ufc put in front of him across 2 weight division. He's beaten multiple generations of champions in every fashion. To even put jon jones and "ducking" in the same sentence is absolutely one of the most absurd things I've ever heard."

Check out Gordon Ryan's comments on Jon Jones below:

Ryan captioned the post by questioning if the fans making those claims are insane. Jones had originally been set to face Stipe Miocic at UFC 295. However, he was forced to withdraw from the bout after tearing the tendon connecting the pectoral muscle to the bone. 'Bones' has long hinted that it could be the final bout of his legendary mixed martial arts career.