"DC” recently ended up in his longtime rival’s crosshairs once again as Jones went on a Twitter storm in response to public criticism for not fighting UFC interim champion Tom Aspinall. Jones is currently recognized as the promotion’s undisputed heavyweight champion, but has long denied any interest in a unification bout with Aspinall, currently ranked No. 1 in the division by MMA Fighting. In their role as ESPN personalities and podcasters, Cormier and fellow MMA veteran Chael Sonnen have frequently criticized Jones for avoiding the Aspinall fight, which prompted Jones to tweet, “Jon Jones whooped both of y’all, but hey—why not team up on a podcast and gossip about his life? Meanwhile, he’s out here making your annual salary in a week. Stay busy, boys.” Now, Cormier is firing back. “All this other stuff that’s going on around the fight, you’re talking about, you’re talking about Francis [Ngannou], you’re talking about Chael,” Cormier said on his YouTube channel. “You’re talking about all these things and almost ignoring the right thing. The right thing is to go fight this kid and if you beat him, which is a real thing and a real likely scenario, you can then stick it to everybody like you’ve done on so many different occasions and tell them about it. Nothing feels better to a guy like Jon Jones than to be able to beat the guy that you thought was going to get him and then going, ‘What did I say to you?’ It’s sweeter than any title or anything else you can give this man. But he’s got to be willing to take that chance to go and fight this dude. “We fought them all,” Cormier added. “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. One thousand percent. The mindset that I carried through 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 have made 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 it’s very hard for me to understand because in my mind this guy’s a fighter because I’ve seen him do it time and time again.”