Fight history
Jones vs. Cormier 1, UFC 182: The Scorecards, the Takedowns and the Rivalry
Cormier came in unbeaten, a two-time Olympic wrestler who had never been taken down. Jones took him down three times and won four rounds on every judge's card.
Jones
CormierAt a glance
- ResultJones by unanimous decision, 49-46 on all three cards; referee Herb Dean
- Cormier's roundRound 2 on the cards of Rosales and Weeks, round 3 on Urso's
- The wrestlingTakedowns 3 of 5 for Jones, 1 of 8 for Cormier; control time 6:52 to 1:36
- The strikingSignificant strikes 92-58 to Jones; Cormier out-landed him only in round 2, 18-16
- Before and afterA brawl at a media event in August 2014; a cocaine-metabolite test made public three days after the fight
- Our verdict49-46 Jones, the same card as Rosales and Weeks: the right result
Watch the fight
We found no upload of the full fight on the UFC's official YouTube channel. The closest is the UFC's own slow-motion highlight reel from the UFC 182 card; tap to play it here.
The rivalry and the brawl
Jon Jones, 27, was making his eighth straight light heavyweight title defense, as ESPN, CBS Sports and Philstar record. Daniel Cormier, 35, was unbeaten in 15 fights and a two-time Olympic wrestler, ESPN and Global News note. He had replaced the injured Alexander Gustafsson for a title fight with Jones at UFC 178 on September 27, 2014, according to ESPN and Sports Illustrated.
On August 4, 2014, at a media event for that fight, the face-off for the cameras turned into a fight. ESPN says their heads hit; SI says Jones rested his forehead against Cormier's. Cormier shoved Jones backward and Jones came straight back at him, as ESPN, SI and Global News all describe. The UFC's director of communications, Dave Sholler, tried to separate them and was shoved into the backdrop, in the accounts of ESPN and Global News. Both men went off the stage, and ESPN and SI describe Jones landing punches on Cormier on the floor before security pulled them apart.
Online, Jones posted "Come on DC where was your takedown defense?", which ESPN and SI both reproduce, and "Put some ice on that face DC, you got lots of interviews tomorrow," which ESPN, SI and Global News all carry. Cormier replied: "I won't let another man get in my face and put his forehead against mine. I will react every time," as SI and Global News both show.
On September 23, 2014, the athletic commission fined Jones $50,000 and Cormier $9,000, as UFC.com, theScore and Bleacher Report report; ESPN calls it 10 percent of each purse. Jones got 40 hours of community service and Cormier 20, theScore and Bleacher Report say; UFC.com puts it as four days and two. Jones told the commission the brawl had cost him a Nike deal, UFC.com and Bleacher Report report. Then Jones hurt his leg, and the fight moved to UFC 182 on January 3, 2015, as ESPN, theScore and UFC.com reported.
The official scorecards
All three judges scored it 49-46 for Jones, four rounds to one, but they split on which round Cormier won. Sherdog's photograph of the official sheet and Verdict MMA's listing of the official cards agree round by round. Scores are written Jones first.
| Judge | R1 | R2 | R3 | R4 | R5 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Marcos Rosales | 10-9 | 9-10 | 10-9 | 10-9 | 10-9 | 49-46 |
| Cardo Urso | 10-9 | 10-9 | 9-10 | 10-9 | 10-9 | 49-46 |
| Tony Weeks | 10-9 | 9-10 | 10-9 | 10-9 | 10-9 | 49-46 |
Referee: Herb Dean, as the official results, the scorecard and ESPN all show.
Rounds 1, 4 and 5 were unanimous for Jones. Bleacher Report's recap calls round 2 "the only round he would officially win in the fight", but Urso gave Cormier the third round instead, so we go by the cards.
The outside scorers we found agreed on the winner. Sherdog's three scorers had Jones ahead 49-46, 49-46 and 48-47, and the average of Verdict MMA users' cards gave Cormier only round 2.
Round by round
Round 1 - Jones
Cormier walked forward from the bell, as ESPN and Sherdog describe, and Jones answered with kicks and shots to the body, in the accounts of Sherdog and UFC.com. Inside the first minute Jones caught a Cormier kick and tripped him, as ESPN and Bleacher Report both describe, and Cormier was straight back up. Cormier's best moments came late, inside, according to CBS Sports and UFC.com. Officially Jones landed 25 of 55 significant strikes to 18 of 48 and led 9-1 to the body; Cormier led 15-13 to the head.
Round 2 - Cormier
Cormier's round. CBS Sports has Jones starting well and Cormier battling back, and Sherdog and Bleacher Report both credit Cormier's uppercuts in the clinch. It is the only round in which Cormier out-landed Jones, 18 of 46 to 16 of 36, and he led 9-7 to the head. Each man missed his one takedown attempt. Rosales and Weeks scored it for Cormier.
Round 3 - Jones, narrowly
Cormier kept pressing, as Sherdog and UFC.com describe. Jones poked him in the eye, and referee Herb Dean paused the fight and warned him, as ESPN, CBS Sports and Sherdog report. theScore calls it a round that could have gone either way. Jones landed 24 of 43 to 15 of 47, with leads of 8-2 to the body and 7-1 to the legs; Cormier led 12-9 to the head and missed both his takedowns. Urso scored it for Cormier.
Round 4 - Jones, by wrestling
Jones pinned Cormier to the fence and took him down twice, as ESPN, UFC.com and The42 report; Cormier got up quickly both times, ESPN and Bleacher Report say. Cormier said afterwards that he took the round off, in words Sherdog and Bleacher Report quote slightly differently. Officially Jones landed 16 of 27, all 10 he threw in the clinch, with 2:35 of control; Cormier landed 3 of 16.
Round 5 - Jones
Late in the round Cormier lifted Jones off the mat and dumped him on the canvas, as Sherdog, ESPN and Bleacher Report describe, but Jones was up at once. Otherwise Jones held him on the fence and landed short shots, in the accounts of ESPN, UFC.com and Sherdog: 11 of 17 significant strikes and 2:16 of control, to Cormier's 4 of 8 and one takedown from four tries. At the end Jones made a crotch-chop gesture at Cormier, Sherdog and Bleacher Report report.
What the numbers say
The official statistics round by round (Jones first; takedowns landed; control in seconds):
| Round | Sig. strikes | Head | Body | Legs | Clinch | Takedowns | Control (sec) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| R1 | 25 - 18 | 13 - 15 | 9 - 1 | 3 - 2 | 6 - 6 | 1 - 0 | 28 - 0 |
| R2 | 16 - 18 | 7 - 9 | 6 - 7 | 3 - 2 | 7 - 7 | 0 - 0 | 61 - 2 |
| R3 | 24 - 15 | 9 - 12 | 8 - 2 | 7 - 1 | 8 - 6 | 0 - 0 | 32 - 22 |
| R4 | 16 - 3 | 9 - 1 | 6 - 0 | 1 - 2 | 10 - 0 | 2 - 0 | 155 - 20 |
| R5 | 11 - 4 | 5 - 3 | 5 - 1 | 1 - 0 | 9 - 3 | 0 - 1 | 136 - 52 |
| Total | 92 - 58 | 43 - 40 | 34 - 11 | 15 - 7 | 40 - 22 | 3 - 1 | 412 - 96 |
Source: the ufcstats round-by-round figures (scrape_ufc_stats mirror). Sherdog also reported Jones's 34 significant strikes to the body.
Through three rounds Cormier landed more to the head, 36-29, but Jones led overall, 65-51, on body and leg work, which is why rounds 2 and 3 split the judges. In rounds 4 and 5 Jones out-landed him 27-7 and controlled him for 4:51 of the ten minutes. Over the fight Jones landed 52% of his significant strikes, Cormier 35%.
The numbers cannot show how hard anything landed. There was no knockdown, and the count does not separate a hard uppercut from a jab, so read Cormier's head strikes as his best case.
How Jones took away the wrestling
Cormier had never been taken down before this fight, theScore and Bleacher Report note. Jones took him down three times from five attempts; Cormier completed one of eight, in the last two minutes. He tried in every round but the fourth, the round in which Jones put him down twice.
| Whole fight | Jones - Cormier |
|---|---|
| Takedowns landed | 3 - 1 |
| Takedown attempts | 5 - 8 |
| Control (sec) | 412 - 96 |
| Sig. strikes in the clinch | 40 - 22 |
| Sig. strikes at distance | 51 - 35 |
| Sig. strikes on the ground | 1 - 1 |
The clinch, where Cormier wanted the fight, went to Jones too: 40 significant strikes from 52 thrown against 22 from 42, and 19-3 over the last two rounds. Jones had 6:52 of control to Cormier's 1:36.
In the cage Jones overstated it. "He's only human," he said, as ESPN, Philstar and UFC.com print, and he put the wrestling at "five takedowns to zero", in words ESPN and The42 carry; The42's report also has him landing five of eight. The official count of three from five matches theScore and Bleacher Report, so we use it.
"Sorry I'm being classless right now," Jones added, and "I don't like DC," as ESPN, Philstar and UFC.com print. Cormier said: "Jon is the best for a reason and he was the better man tonight," which Sherdog, UFC.com and Philstar all carry. It was his first loss, ESPN, CBS Sports and The42 note; Jones went to 21-1 and Cormier to 15-1.
How we scored it
| Round | MMA.SOCIAL | Why |
|---|---|---|
| R1 | 10-9 Jones | The takedown, a 25-18 lead in significant strikes and 9-1 to the body; Cormier's 15-13 to the head is not enough. |
| R2 | 10-9 Cormier | The only round he out-landed Jones, 18-16, with his best clinch work of the fight. |
| R3 | 10-9 Jones | 24-15 in significant strikes, with leads to body and legs; Cormier's pressure makes it close. |
| R4 | 10-9 Jones | Two takedowns, 2:35 of control, 16-3 in significant strikes. |
| R5 | 10-9 Jones | 11-4 and 2:16 of control outweigh one late takedown. |
| Total | 49-46 Jones | Round for round, the cards of Rosales and Weeks. |
Urso's card differs from ours only in the middle rounds, and his third round for Cormier, who pushed the pace and landed more to the head, is defensible; we give it to Jones on volume and accuracy. Nothing here is a robbery: no judge saw a 10-8 round, and every judge gave Jones the last two.
The drug test
Three days after the fight, on January 6, 2015, it became public that Jones had tested positive for benzoylecgonine, a metabolite of cocaine, as ESPN, Fox Sports and LowKick MMA reported. The sample came from a random out-of-competition test on December 4, 2014, and the result arrived on December 23, according to ESPN and Yahoo Sports.
The win stands. The commission follows the World Anti-Doping Agency's list, which bans cocaine only in competition, so the test carried no penalty, as ESPN, Fox Sports and Yahoo all explain. A follow-up test was clean, Yahoo and Fox Sports report.
Jones entered a treatment program. "With the support of my family, I have entered into a drug treatment facility," his statement read, as ESPN and Fox Sports print. On January 17 the UFC fined him $25,000 under its athlete code of conduct, the money going to a substance-abuse prevention program, and said his fight-night tests were negative, SI and ESPN report.
His low testosterone-to-epitestosterone ratios, down to 0.19 in a December 18 sample as theScore and LowKick MMA report, raised questions about synthetic testosterone. Carbon isotope tests on the pre-fight samples came back clean, as the commission's executive director, Bob Bennett, told Bleacher Report and theScore.
What happened next
UFC 182 was the last defense of that title reign. On April 28, 2015, the UFC stripped Jones and suspended him indefinitely after his arrest over a hit-and-run, as ESPN and SI report. Cormier replaced him against Anthony Johnson at UFC 187 on May 23, 2015 and won the vacant title by rear-naked choke at 2:39 of the third round, as ESPN and the official record show.
The rematch came at UFC 214 on July 29, 2017. Jones stopped Cormier in the third round, and the result was overturned to a no contest after Jones failed a drug test, as the official record, CBS Sports and Cageside Press show. We cover that fight in full in our Jones vs. Cormier 2 article. The official record, which runs to the start of November 2026, has no third fight, so UFC 182 is the only result between them that counts.
The verdict
Jones vs. Cormier 1 is not a disputed decision. Every judge had Jones winning four rounds, our card agrees, and the only argument is whether Cormier's round was the second or the third. Cormier held his own to the head for three rounds, but Jones out-landed him overall, beat the Olympic wrestler at wrestling three takedowns to one, and took over the last two rounds. The brawl and the drug test are why the fight is remembered; in the cage, Jones was the better fighter.
Full fight stats: Jones vs. Cormier. The rest of the night: UFC 182. The rematch: Jones vs. Cormier 2. More: the most title fights in UFC history.
Sources
- UFCStats round-by-round statistics (scrape_ufc_stats mirror)
- UFCStats fight results, judges and referee (scrape_ufc_stats mirror)
- Sherdog - Jon Jones-Daniel Cormier UFC 182 official scorecard
- Verdict MMA - Jon Jones vs. Daniel Cormier, official and user scorecards
- Sherdog - UFC 182 play-by-play and scoring
- Sherdog - Daniel Cormier on UFC 182 loss: "He beat me, he won the fight"
- ESPN (Brett Okamoto) via ABC7 - Jon Jones defends UFC title
- CBS Sports - UFC 182: Jon Jones defeats Daniel Cormier in eighth title defense
- UFC.com - Jones decisions Cormier, bad blood still boils
- Bleacher Report - Recapping the pivotal moments from the UFC 182 main event
- Bleacher Report - UFC 182 results: scorecards and payouts
- Bleacher Report - UFC 182 results: winners and scorecards
- theScore - Jon Jones retains title after 5-round war with Daniel Cormier
- The42 - Jon Jones prevails in UFC 182 grudge match
- Philstar - Jones outpoints Cormier to retain UFC light heavyweight crown
- ESPN via ABC7 - Jon Jones, Daniel Cormier go at it
- Sports Illustrated - Jon Jones and Daniel Cormier brawl at UFC 178 media day
- Global News - UFC champ Jon Jones brawls with opponent at pre-fight press conference
- UFC.com - Jones and Cormier fined for August brawl
- Bleacher Report - Jones, Cormier fined for UFC 178 media day brawl
- theScore - Jon Jones, Daniel Cormier fined for roles in brawl
- ESPN via ABC7 - Jones-Cormier fight moves to Jan. 3
- theScore - Jon Jones injures knee; title fight moved to UFC 182
- ESPN via ABC7 - Jon Jones tests positive for cocaine
- Fox Sports - Jon Jones in rehab after testing positive for substance found in cocaine
- Yahoo Sports - Why Jon Jones was allowed to fight after a positive drug test
- LowKick MMA - Jon Jones' carbon isotope testing came back clean
- Bleacher Report - Bennett: CIR testing done on Jones sample, came back clean
- theScore - Bennett: Jon Jones's testosterone tested clean before UFC 182
- Sports Illustrated - UFC fines Jon Jones $25,000 for failed drug test
- ESPN via ABC7 - Jon Jones fined $25,000 by UFC
- Sports Illustrated - Jon Jones suspended, stripped of UFC light heavyweight title
- ESPN via ABC7 - Daniel Cormier wins light heavyweight title by submission
- CBS Sports - Jones-Cormier rematch ruled a no contest
- Cageside Press - Jon Jones win over Daniel Cormier at UFC 214 overturned to no contest
Questions
Who won Jones vs. Cormier 1?
Jon Jones, by unanimous decision at UFC 182 on January 3, 2015. All three judges scored it 49-46, and it was the first loss of Daniel Cormier's career. Jones kept the light heavyweight title for the eighth straight defense.
What were the scorecards for Jones vs. Cormier at UFC 182?
All three judges scored it 49-46 for Jones. Marcos Rosales and Tony Weeks gave Cormier the second round, and Cardo Urso gave him the third; every other round went to Jones. Our own card is also 49-46 Jones, with the second round for Cormier.
How many takedowns did Jon Jones get against Daniel Cormier?
Three from five attempts on the official count: one in the first round and two in the fourth. Cormier, a two-time Olympic wrestler who had never been taken down, landed one of eight, late in the fifth round. Jones said "five takedowns to zero" after the fight, but the official count is three to one.
What happened in the Jones vs. Cormier brawl?
On August 4, 2014, at a media event for their original UFC 178 date, their heads met at the face-off, Cormier shoved Jones, and Jones came back throwing punches. Both went off the stage before security separated them. The athletic commission fined Jones $50,000 and Cormier $9,000.
Did Jon Jones fail a drug test after UFC 182?
A test taken a month before the fight, on December 4, 2014, was positive for a cocaine metabolite, and it was made public on January 6, 2015. Cocaine is banned only in competition, so the result stood and there was no suspension. Jones entered a treatment program, the UFC fined him $25,000, and his fight-night tests were negative.
Did Jones and Cormier fight again?
Yes, at UFC 214 on July 29, 2017. Jones stopped Cormier in the third round, but the result was overturned to a no contest after Jones failed a drug test. They never fought a third time.
