It’s not everyday Daniel Cormier goes out of his way to back Jon Jones, but that’s exactly what he’s doing when it comes to UFC White House.
As soon as President Donald Trump announced he wanted to hold a UFC event on the White House lawn on July 4, 2026, Jones ended his brief retirement and declared his intention to return for the historic card. But Jones’ excitement was soon dashed after UFC CEO Dana White said he can’t trust the former heavyweight champion to show up when needed, especially for such an important card.
While Cormier understands White’s hesitation — he’s personally lived through a whole lot of drama with Jones during his career — he still believes his greatest rival offers America the best chance to win in the main event.
“I think that I would let him fight,” Cormier said of Jones on his YouTube channel. “I think if he wants to fight, I would let him fight because for as much as mixed martial arts is a global sport, and it’s a sport that everybody loves, we support people from all around the world but at the end of the day we’re fighting at the White House. You want American people that can win at the end of the night.
“Noche UFC last weekend had six Mexican-born fighters, they won all six fights. They had three American fighters of Mexican descent and they all won. It felt good for the people leaving the arena that night because the people they went to support had all found success. Imagine if we’re on the White House lawn and the Americans aren’t winning fights. That can happen.”
Cormier acknowledged the rumors that Conor McGregor might make his long-awaited return to action for the White House event, with Michael Chandler as his most likely opponent.
Despite McGregor being four years away from the sport and counting, Cormier still believes he would be favored to beat Chandler if that fight happens. While nothing is guaranteed, Cormier argues Jones has a much better chance to beat reigning UFC heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall than Chandler does pulling off the upset over McGregor.
“[Conor McGregor] will still be the favorite to beat Michael Chandler,” Cormier said. “But if you put Jon Jones against Tom Aspinall, for what everybody says Tom Aspinall is the guy to beat him, when that line opens, I bet Jon Jones is still going to be the favorite. He’ll still be favored to beat Tom Aspinall.
“He’ll be the guy that is the world champion or at least was the world champion before he vacated his title and retired. So he’ll still be favored to win that fight. I believe that you’ve got to let him fight.”
Cormier argues the UFC could potentially lace Jones’ contract with incentives or potentially penalties if he signs to fight and then doesn’t show up for the White House card.
Jones dropping out of the event has been White’s biggest concern when discussing his reluctance to allow the former two-division champion to take the top spot on the card.
“You put some things in his contract that makes it very costly to not follow through,” Cormier said. “If you put Jon Jones on the White House card, say something happens in the lawn and he has to be pulled off the card, a million dollars [fined]. Say he doesn’t want to fight, a million dollars. Say he gets injured, then it should be less as long as the injury can be proven. If the injury is proven, charge him nothing. He’s just a normal fighter that got hurt in training camp but you put these safeguards in place to make sure that he shows up there.”
As of now, Kayla Harrison is actually the only champion on the entire UFC roster from the United States and Cormier noted there’s not a single American fighter currently ranked in the top 10 pound-for-pound in the UFC.
Cormier appreciates that the UFC is a global organization with champions from all over the world, but for an event celebrating America’s 250th birthday, he wants to see the best fighter from the U.S. represented on that card with a real shot at winning.
Like it or not, Cormier believes Jones is that person.
“It’s me asking you to give Jon Jones a chance. That’s crazy!” Cormier said with a laugh, addressing White. “It’s why good guys win at the end of the movies. Because they want people to feel good leaving the theater, except for Million Dollar Baby, which was a bullshit movie because that woman died or something at the end of the movie and I hated the way that I felt when I left. Nobody goes to the movies for that shit.
“We got to the movies to see stuff and feel good when we leave. I think that the White House card deserves a chance for that to happen.”
