MMA Light Heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier is blaming the aftereffects of anesthesia for his explosion on Twitter at former pound-for-pound king and ousted Light Heavyweight champion Jon “Bones” Jones last week.

Cormier explained to FOX Sports that he was just coming out of a procedure on the leg he injured checking a kick in training which forced him to pull out of his scheduled rematch with Jones at UFC 197 later this month. According to Cormier, the residual anesthetics for the procedure (which Cormier jokingly referred to as “truth serum”) were still in his system when he saw an inflammatory tweet by Jones implying that he was a coward for offering to train his replacement in the UFC main event, Ovince St. Preux.

Daniel just please explain to us all why you would help OSP if you truly want to fight me and legitimize yourself as the champion? — Jon Bones Jones (@JonnyBones) April 5, 2016

The champion wasted no time unleashing a seething deluge of vitriol upon Jones wherein he mocked Jones’ history of arrests and drug use, among other things, with Jones egging him on and mocking him intermittently.

@JonnyBones I want nothing more than to fight you. Ur a 10-1 favorite. We don't like you. We'd side with anyone fighting u. It's simple! — Daniel Cormier (@dc_mma) April 5, 2016

Remember jones I didn't call u coward when u moved our 1st fight due to injury hypocrite. That's biggest word I'll use when talking to u. — Daniel Cormier (@dc_mma) April 5, 2016

Cormier’s next tweet said, “Jones you can’t hurt me, u lunch like a b***h. Ur not winning decision next time. Just don’t get ur dumb a** arrested again. Loser junkie”

Last tweet. Jon ur dumb! Like really dumb. Get off ur high horse and stop riding the white horse. Junkie , I'm gonna rip ur head off! — Daniel Cormier (@dc_mma) April 5, 2016

“I generally don’t say stuff like that,” Cormier explained. “The reality is for his issues, I’m not a guy that’s going to make fun of him as much as I could. Those are pretty much layups. If I wanted to insult him, those things are easy to insult him about. A little bit of honesty juice, a little bit of truth serum inside of me.”

“I was actually just getting out of the procedure so I was still under the influence of the stuff. That played a part in that, too. I had the honesty juice in. So all of my media training went out the window because I was still a little loopy on the stuff that they gave me to put me under. It’s the little frustrations, Jon called me a coward, which is one thing, I’m not a coward.”

The Brawl That Started it All: Jon Jones and Daniel Cormier Come to Blows (Video) - http://t.co/Gfbf2FQdjf pic.twitter.com/hilN0mM9PT — MMA Fight! Magazine (@JustinBarracosa) December 30, 2014

Trading barbs is nothing new for the pair of disputed light heavyweight kings, who began what is easily one of the most entertaining feuds in MMA history leading up to their original title fight at UFC 182 last year, back when Jones was still the longstanding champion of his division and Cormier the surging challenger.

Their back-and-forths have become the stuff of legend and even came to blows in a hotel lobby brawl in August of 2014, for which both fighters were fined and ordered to complete community service by the Nevada State Athletic Commission. Cormier told FOX Sports that he isn’t sorry for last week’s rants and was only being a bit more forthcoming with his hatred of Jones than he otherwise would have been.

[Photo by Steve Marcus/Getty Images]