Former UFC champion Daniel Cormier revealed on The Joe Rogan Experience that he considered biting Jon Jones during their infamous UFC 178 press conference brawl, drawing parallels to Mike Tyson’s infamous bite on Evander Holyfield, which he attributed to an instinctual, primal response to being in a vulnerable position.
Daniel Cormier, a retired UFC fighter, once admitted to understanding why Mike Tyson bit Evander Holyfield. Cormier even contemplated doing the same to Jon Jones during their notorious UFC 178 press conference brawl.
He shared these thoughts on Wednesday’s edition of The Joe Rogan Experience. Cormier expressed his fascination with the alpha male behavior seen in the animal kingdom. He pondered on the infamous “bite fight” of 1997, reflecting on what drives someone to resort to primal tactics to assert dominance.
He recalled a moment when Jones head-butted him at the MGM Grand Garden Arena. “When I was in that press fight with Jon Jones, I was still undefeated at the time, and we were at the MGM Grand, and he head-butted me, like put his head on me,” Cormier remembered. “So, I push him. He’s an alpha male too. So, the f***** attacks me.”
Cormier continued, “So we get to fighting, and we’re fighting, and Joe, the security guard from the UFC, falls under me. But now I’m on my back as we go flying off the stage. I will say, there was a thought to bite the motherf*****, because, what am I doing on my back, right?”
He later revealed a deep-seated fear of being on his back, a fear that originated from his wrestling days. This fear was so intense that he couldn’t even sleep on his back. “I fell asleep on my back one day and woke up in a full panic attack,” he admitted, laughing.
Footage from the brawl showed Jones on top of Cormier, throwing punches. Before they were separated, Cormier was reaching a primal point. Neither fighter was willing to back down.
“I’m losing,” Cormier confessed. “I’m going to bite the son of a b****. I don’t have any mouthpiece in my mouth. And if I would have bit him, that would have been a reaction for a guy that usually will walk around in most places in this world as the alpha, and then when he finds himself on the bottom, as an alpha, he’s got to find a way to survive.”
That’s why Cormier said he could understand why Tyson bit Holyfield. The experience of not being the alpha, he explained, could drive a competitor like Tyson to lose control and become animalistic.
“If I would have bit [Jones], you’d have been like, ‘DC bit him,’ but it’s not the first time we saw somebody bite a motherf***** down there, because Mike Tyson did it three times,” Cormier told Rogan. “It’s so unfamiliar.”
Now retired and working as a UFC commentator, Cormier spends more time analyzing Jones as a fighter than contemplating how to defeat him in the octagon. Both fighters were fined and suspended due to the brawl. Jones went on to defeat Cormier at UFC 182 and later UFC 214, though the latter was overturned due to Jones’ failed drug test.
Cormier has since reconciled with his longtime rival. However, there are moments when he still feels that primal impulse. He even advises his wrestling students, “Never end up on your back.”