Jon Jones on the 'silly' origin of the beef between him and Daniel Cormier

I'd like to believe that somewhere in a drawer in UFC matchmaker Joe Silva's desk sits a contract all made out and ready to be signed. The names on the contract will already be filled in, the only things missing on the legal document that will bind those two men to a fight inside a locked cage are the date and location and their signatures. I'd like to believe that sometime in 2014, Silva will dig through that drawer, smile to himself once he locates the contract and then send that contract out to Jon Jones and Daniel Cormier to be signed so that they can fight for Jones' UFC light heavyweight title.

Yes, this scenario makes a few leaps of faith, like Jones will remain champion until that faithful day, and that Cormier will not only make the 205-pound limit, but also win a fight or two at that weight. Just humor me on those leaps, because you know that like me, you want to see that fight, you need to see that fight.

Many believe that the unbeaten Cormier poses a huge threat to Jones and his record setting reign as UFC light heavyweight title. When you add the fact that these two seem to not like each other all that much, well, that makes for an intriguing match up. It also doesn't hurt the UFC's ability to build interest in a potential fight and then sell a bunch of tickets and pay-per-views for that fight.

The origin of the beef between Jones and Cormier has never really been clear, it just seems like there has always been an issue between the two fighters. Recently, Jones spoke to Ariel Helwani about how the whole thing started:

The whole story behind me and him is just so silly. I met him, and I came up to him with a big smile on my face. He's another black guy in the sport, and I felt the need to say hello to him, and I was just like ‘hey man, I hear you're a great wrestler' and all this stuff, and he's like ‘Yeah, yeah, you don't know who I am?' I'm like ‘No I don't know who you are, but my coaches were telling me that you wrestle on the Olympic level.' And I was like ‘I bet you that I could take you down.'

It was my way of trying to develop a new friendship, and he just took it so seriously, and he was just so offended that I didn't know who he was, and from that moment on he decided that there was a beef between us. I was just trying to reach out to him at that moment, and he just decided that there wouldn't be a friendship between us.

It's cool by me. If this guy has some kind of personal vendetta or chose to have a beef with me it's fine. It just kind of sucks because both of us being African-American guys in the sport I think we should get along and respect each other, but that's not the case.

Bloody Elbow reached out to Cormier's management team for a response to Jones' comments, but did not receive a reply.

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