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Jon Jones: 'I'll deal with Brock Lesnar' after UFC 214 rematch with Daniel Cormier

LOS ANGELES – Jon Jones talked tough about a potential fight with Brock Lesnar, even if UFC President Dana White professes he isn’t in touch with the former heavyweight kingpin.

“I’ll deal with Daniel, and then I’ll deal with Brock Lesnar,” Jones said during today’s UFC 214 press conference at The Novo by Microsoft supporting his rematch with Daniel Cormier on Saturday at Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif.

Speculation of Lesnar’s (5-3 MMA, 4-3 UFC) return recently has been in the headlines after reports that he’s made himself available to testing by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency. The UFC denied that is the case.

White claims he hasn’t recently talked with the Lesnar, though he’s said such things before when trying to keep big news quiet.

“It’s crazy,” White said. “I don’t know where that thing came from or how it got started. Believe me, I haven’t talked to Brock Lesnar. I don’t know.”

White asked Jones (22-1 MMA, 16-1 UFC), who said he hadn’t talked to Lesnar either. Aware he might not get the benefit of the doubt after previous head-fakes, White joked, “It sounds like nobody believes me, but it’s true.”

The whole thing started when a fan pitched the matchup to Jones during a Facebook chat the ex-light heavyweight champ conducted earlier this week. Jones didn’t shoot it down, which added fuel to the fire.

“It would be a massive draw, really big for the sport,” Jones said. “It would be a great challenge; that’s a big old boy. I doubt Brock Lesnar would take that fight, though. I definitely wouldn’t try to wrestle with him the whole time. I’m not going to tell you what I would do.”

Word then got back to Lesnar, who said he would fight Jones “anytime, anywhere.”

In fact, there are a whole lot of reasons the fight wouldn’t happen any time soon. Of course, Jones (22-1 MMA, 16-1 UFC) first has Cormier (19-1 MMA, 8-1 UFC) to face. Then Lesnar is still subject to punishment for an anti-doping violation one year ago at UFC 200. Six months remain on Lesnar’s one-year suspension, which was frozen by his retirement from the sport earlier this year.

The UFC would then need to waive a six-month waiting period required of returning athletes. That would be a bad look for the promotion after its waiver of a four-month testing window was followed by Lesnar’s positive test for performance-enhancers following a win over Mark Hunt.

Then again, in the realm of fantasy matchmaking, no hurdle is too great to overcome. The real hurdles might be a different story. But when you’re trying to stoke the promotional fires or set up your next fight, you can certainly put those on the back-burner.

For more on UFC 214, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.

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