Daniel Cormier has his reservations about former UFC two-division champion Jon Jones coaching Gable Steveson.
Jones has been working with Olympic gold medalist wrestler Steveson as a coach, mentor and training partner in anticipation of a big move to the UFC. Steveson is 2-0 in MMA competition and 1-0 in Jones’ Dirty Boxing Championship promotion.
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Cormier, who spent weeks coaching the “ALF Reality” show with Jones in Thailand, said his former rival may not be the right person to coach Steveson.
“I believe he has a real chance to be a world champion,” Cormier said of Steveson on “The Ariel Helwani Show.” “I do believe that him doing Dirty Boxing, where he essentially takes away his greatest skill, and the willingness to do that, bodes well to him becoming a world champion. I believe there are some factors that may slow him down – well, his coach is Jon Jones.
“I think that, as long as he lets the other coaches coach him, yes (he’ll be fine). But if Jon is actually coaching him, I don’t know that he’ll – I don’t even think Gable is ever going to fall into the trap of making the mistakes, and honestly after spending all the time with Jon in Thailand, he’s different today than he was back then. He’s not that same person that he was back when him and I were going into all of our stuff.”
Cormier explained that, unlike Brendan Schaub, his concern is more about Jones’ presence in Steveson’s MMA journey.
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“You know what Khabib (Nurmagomedov) is and why he’s such a great coach? Khabib is the most selfless person you’ve ever met,” Cormier said. “He can put his athletes above himself, in front of him in everything that he does. In order to be a great coach, you cannot have an ego.
“You have to become secondary to everyone that you coach, and Jon is still on the roster, he’s an active fighter, and I don’t know if he can be as giving and selfless to make Gable the true star of the show. You’ve got to make the other guy. You’ve got to make your athlete the star of the show.”
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Daniel Cormier unsure Jon Jones cut out to coach Gable Steveson
