Cormier didn't celebrate Jones arrest: 'You don't do that to people'

Former UFC two-division champion Daniel Cormier got little satisfaction from seeing rival Jon Jones in legal trouble again.

Jones, the UFC light heavyweight champion, was arrested last week in Albuquerque, New Mexico, for aggravated DWI and negligent use of a firearm.

"Seeing him get into trouble again, a lot of people in my circle, they text me, almost celebratory. But that's not me," Cormier said Monday during "Ariel Helwani's MMA Show." "I didn't celebrate the kid getting in trouble again. I don't think you celebrate or dance on someone's grave in their darkest moments. You don't do that to people, man."

Jones and Cormier fought twice from 2015 to 2017 and were involved in one of the most heated rivalries in UFC history. However, their careers have since headed in different directions and it's unlikely they'll fight a third time.

"I hate him in a lot of ways ... but I hate seeing a young, black athlete in that situation even more than my disdain for him," Cormier said. "I don't like seeing that, because it's almost what people expect, and I don't want that to be the way it is for these young athletes."

Cormier said he could barely watch the police body cam footage from Jones' latest arrest because it's clear the 205-pound champ is "messed up."

Jones and Cormier met for the first time in January 2015. The former won by unanimous decision to retain the light heavyweight title and hand Cormier his first professional loss.

But following a hit-and-run later that year, Jones was arrested and stripped of the title. Cormier won the vacant belt and defended it against Jones in a rematch in July 2017. Jones won again, by TKO, but failed a drug test and Cormier was reinstated as the titleholder.

Cormier relinquished the light heavyweight belt in 2018 after beating Stipe Miocic for the heavyweight strap, and Jones recaptured it with a TKO win over Alexander Gustafsson at the end of the year. Jones has since defended the title three times.