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UFC dual champion Daniel Cormier said he's not interested in a third fight against rival Jon Jones before his retirement.
Cormier, 39, who defeated Derrick Lewis at UFC 230 on Saturday to retain the UFC heavyweight championship, said he plans on ending his career at the age of 40 and hopes his final opponent will be former UFC heavyweight and current WWE Universal champion Brock Lesnar.
"I don't need [the Jones fight] anymore," Cormier said on Ariel Helwani's MMA Show Monday. "Sometimes you need things and sometimes you don't. ... I've come to terms with everything. Because he was gone so much, I had to remove myself from the situation so completely that it almost became not reality."
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Cormier and Jones have shared one of the most heated rivalries in MMA history. Jones defeated Cormier twice (one of which was later changed to a no-contest), which included a unanimous decision during their initial fight at UFC 182 in 2015.
Jones was later stripped of his light heavyweight championship after being arrested following a hit-and-run accident that injured a pregnant woman, with Cormier defeating Anthony Johnson for the interim title. The former Oklahoma State wrestling star also defeated Stipe Miocic to claim the UFC Heavyweight championship in July.
Jones and Cormier were initially scheduled for a rematch at UFC 200 in July 2016, but Jones failed a prefight drug test and was pulled from the card just days before the event, having been replaced by Anderson Silva, who Cormier defeated handedly.
The two finally met in a rematch at UFC 214 in July 2017, which saw Jones win by TKO after a head kick in the third round. However, the fight was later ruled a no-contest after Jones tested positive for Turinabol, an anabolic steroid.
Last month, Jones also told Helwani that he wasn't interested in another rematch with Cormier.
"I already have all the marbles when it comes to Daniel Cormier," Jones said. "I've beaten him twice. This game has never been personal. What is personal to me is chasing greatness, not individuals. So in the case of myself and Daniel Cormier, he needs to fight myself one more time if he ever wants to be considered one of the all-time greats. I don't need to fight him again to be considered one of the all-time greats. I have many more years to prove it."
Jones is scheduled to fight Alexander Gustafsson at UFC 232 on Dec. 29 in Las Vegas. The fight is a rematch of a previous bout in which Jones won by a unanimous decision to retain his light heavyweight title.
Cormier, who said he believes he is in the discussion for the best fighter ever, has only lost one professional fight, but believes Jones used banned substances to win their initial fight.
"Can I really trust that he's going to be back in the game?" Cormier asked. "History shows that there will probably be some sort of issue either before the Gustafsson fight or after the Gustafsson fight. We schedule a fight? There's definitely going to be an issue because there's always been an issue."
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