Daniel Cormier questions the way Jon Jones beat him in their first fight and continues to fume at Jones’ positive test for a performance-enhancing substance before their second meeting in July was scrapped at the last minute.

Now that Cormier, the UFC’s light-heavyweight champion, and Jones, the long-reigning and stained former champion, have signed to fight at the July 29 UFC 214 card at Anaheim’s Honda Center, Cormier said he’s “cautiously optimistic” that the long-festering rematch will happen.

“I feel like there’s no way this can go sideways again,” the 38-year-old Cormier (19-1) told the Los Angeles Times in his first public comments about the fight. “At some point, it can’t, right? If at first you don’t succeed, try and try again.

“He seems to do well when there is no public spotlight. The issue is, whenever all the fame and everything that surrounds being a UFC fighter is back in his life, he seems to struggle.


“But I trust the people around him this time to keep him in line. It’s only 11 weeks. That’s it. Less than three months of not messing up … .”

After defeating No. 1 contender Anthony Johnson by second-round submission in Buffalo, N.Y., in April, Cormier made it clear to Jones, “You fight me now or you fight me never.” And Jones (22-1) has now signed on, with the two fighters scheduled to appear at a news conference in Dallas on Friday to formally announce the bout.

Cormier has repeatedly picked at Jones for his personal recklessness that saw him stripped of his belt in 2015 after defeating Cormier by unanimous decision in Las Vegas.

The Nevada State Athletic Commission revealed after Jones’ victory over Cormier that Jones had tested positive for cocaine less than a month before the fight.


That encouraged the UFC to retain the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency to oversee a rigid, Olympic-style testing program that has helped the organization root out cheaters.

Later in 2015, Jones’ belt was stripped after he crashed his car into one driven by a pregnant woman, injuring her and fleeing the scene with a wad of cash while leaving drug paraphernalia behind in his car.

By the time Jones had recovered from that episode, defeating Ovince Saint Preux in an uninspired decision in April 2016 to set up the Cormier rematch in July, he then tested positive for a banned performance-enhancing substance also used for sexual enhancement, causing the eleventh-hour cancellation of that bout.

Cormier and Jones have previously fought onstage and bickered in X-rated language with television cameras rolling, and Cormier unveiled his full disdain and disrespect for Jones on Friday.


“My biggest thing from the first fight is that he won the fourth round — it was probably his most dominant round … and I firmly believe that at that point, he was enhanced. I will just firmly say it,” Cormier said. “You can’t tell me a guy who’s doing cocaine a month before is not going to do something like that. That’s just my thought. I believe he had help. I feel he was enhanced.

“And I believe the way he fought against Ovince Saint Preux is because he can’t do that stuff anymore under USADA. I don’t lie for a second.”

A spokeswoman for Jones declined to make the fighter available to respond to Cormier’s accusations Friday, saying she didn’t want to “dignify that with a response” or “fuel the fire” ignited by Cormier.

In the July UFC 200 event, Cormier proceeded to defeat UFC legend Anderson Silva — admitting that his purse took an estimated $1 million hit thanks to Jones’ transgression.


“I don’t believe for a second that [Jones only] took sexual enhancement pills,” Cormier said. “I believe if you fail for things that are masking agents, it’s pretty obvious … I believe he was cheating. And after he did his best against Ovince Saint Preux, he decided he was going to try and cheat me again, but he got caught. That’s on the record.”

Tickets for UFC 214 go on sale June 9.

lance.pugmire@latimes.com


Twitter: @latimespugmire