Jon Jones’ adamant efforts to befriend his arch-rival Daniel Cormier have just found a new chapter. In an attempt to bury the hatchet, the former two-division champion invited ‘DC’ to share a pizza with him. And to make the occasion special, ‘Bones’ also invited fans to join both of them in a meet-and-greet.   

‘Bones’ made the admission during his recent appearance on the Prince Street Pizza YouTube channel. At first, the Rochester native affirmed that Daniel Cormier could possibly be the ‘GOAT’ if they weren’t part of the same era. After making the surprising claim, Jones invited his long-term adversary for a pizza date in the interview location, Baton Rouge, a city in Cormier’s home state of Louisiana.

“My goal is to make bygones be bygones, invite him out for a pizza; maybe we can do a meet-and-greet for the fans here. We’re older,” Jones said. “We all like food. We all like community, family, and I think that’s the way Prince Street can bring us together.

“So hopefully, if you’re watching, Daniel Cormier, I’ll invite you out here to Baton Rouge. I’ll fly you out. We can have pizza. We can talk. You can show me things about Louisiana. And we can bury the hatchet.”    

For now, Jon Jones’ invitation remains unanswered because Daniel Cormier is yet to publicly accept it. But this friendly gesture from ‘Bones’ is definitely not surprising considering he has made similar attempts before.

One of the first notable instances occurred after Jon Jones beat Daniel Cormier for the second time at UFC 214. In an interview with Sports Illustrated in August 2017, Jones said that he hoped to reach a point where he and Cormier left behind their rivalry and joined hands in a charitable cause.

Though ‘Bones’ displayed a genuine respect for his rival, his efforts deteriorated rather quickly. His win over Cormier was turned into a no-contest after he tested positive for turinabol in an in-competition drug test conducted by USADA.

Understandably, that instance left Daniel Cormier livid to a point where he started hating Jones even more.

After nearly a decade, Jon Jones made another valiant effort to reconcile with Cormier during their stint as coaches on the reality show. The former two-division champ believed both starring as mentors for their respective teams would provide an ‘opportunity’ of friendship.

However, ‘DC’ remained firm with his stance that he doesn’t want to be buddies with Jones and even called him out for a wrestling match.

In fact, both of them went back and forth about a claim Jones made about Cormier not wanting to be friends. 

Jon Jones accused Daniel Cormier of faking their beef for monetary reasons   

Speaking to ALF Global in late July 2026, Jon Jones mentioned having a private conversation with Daniel Cormier during the show where the Louisiana native allegedly admitted to faking the beef. ‘Bones’ further disclosed that Cormier was keeping their animosity alive because it brings a lot of money for each of them. 

“I would shake his hand if I had the opportunity to,” Jones said. “I attempted to create some sort of a positive relationship with him multiple times throughout the TV show. One time we were sitting down on the couch together and I said, ‘Isn’t this nice for us to just sit here, no problems, just enjoying the moment?’

“He goes, ‘Yeah, this is nice, but Jon being your enemy has made me too much money over the years. So even though I have no problem with you, when the cameras turn on I can never be your friend in front of people.'”  

For someone like Daniel Cormier, who has painted Jon Jones as the villain of his UFC career, that was a serious allegation. So, the former UFC champ fired back at ‘Bones’ and accused him of lying on his YouTube channel.

“That just didn’t happen,” Cormier said. “This is not a conversation that Jon and I had. It just isn’t. Have I made a lot of money because Jon Jones and I have been on the wrong side of each other? Yes. And so did Muhammad Ali with Joe Frazier, and so did Muhammad Ali with George Foreman – and I’m not comparing myself to him. 

“So did Khabib with Conor McGregor, and Conor McGregor with other people. You always need a person on the other side in order to make the big dollars.” 

One important thing to note: Daniel Cormier didn’t deny earning money from his rivalry with Jon Jones. But he refuted the idea of his beef with Jones being fabricated.

In fact, he used the examples of Khabib and Conor to illustrate that their animosity has made them even wealthier because fans invested in an animosity that was actually real.

This shows that Jon Jones might attempt to reconcile a few more times, but Cormier most likely won’t be interested in shaking hands.