Old wounds can become new again when something catastrophic happens. UFC 214 came and went and we all moved on from Daniel Cormier’s defeat and his emotional interview that Joe Rogan later regretted. It might be hard to tell Cormier, but it isn’t bad being the second best light heavyweight in the world and top 10 pound-for-pound. We lifted Jon Jones back up as the UFC champ and the GOAT candidate. However, now that Jones allegedly popped for steroids, all those feelings come rushing back. Big John McCarthy recently revealed that Daniel Cormier didn’t realize he even fought Jones in a recent comprehensive interview for RT Sport.

“He looked at me and he never even realized the fight started. He is sitting on the stool, he’s been knocked out and he is saying, ‘John what are they doing with my belt, we haven’t even fought yet. Why are they giving it to him?’ This is what occurs, this is the reality of fighting. And in the situation with Daniel Cormier, Dan doesn’t remember any of that. His brain doesn’t observe that information and put it in the memory because he got concussed. And this is part of our sport, and people need to understand what’s going on with it.”

“DC got mad at me because he thought I stopped it early, but I didn’t. I even let it go a little bit longer because of knowing that fight, and knowing the ramifications of doing things. There was a lot of pressure on everyone involved and there was a lot of responsibility. And UFC is handing that responsibility to you like, ‘Don’t screw us over.’ And in the championship fight we have to make things decisive so there is no controversy, there is no doubt. […] Daniel Cormier has got nothing to apologize to me for. Daniel Cormier is a freaking champion, he is a freaking incredible representative of the sport of MMA. He has never done anything wrong in this sport ever, as far as the way he represents it. He has nothing to apologize to John McCarthy for. He’s done everything just the way he needs to do.”

There is still a long, hard road that Jon Jones is about to take us on, but Daniel Cormier will have a road to walk down himself. If Jones is stripped, he’s the UFC light heavyweight champion again and may never fight it’s rightful owner again. But that shouldn’t matter, to him or anyone else. DC was top five and undefeated at heavyweight and his only loss at light heavyweight is to Jon Jones. If he ends up the champion, there should be no second thoughts to call him that.

This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 8/24/2017.