Last week, Jon Jones upped the ante in his never-ending war of words with archrival Daniel Cormier, making a crack about the UFC light heavyweight champion’s wife in a series of Twitter shots.

As far as Cormier is concerned, this is what Jones has been reduced to: Since he’s on the sidelines once again due to a suspension, Jones needs to take stabs at Cormier to keep his name in the headlines.

And while Cormier feels the remarks were a low blow, people are in fact taking about Jones as Cormier gets set to challenge UFC heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic in the main event of next week’s UFC 226.

“I think at this point, when a guy has been as inactive as Jones, He ties himself to certain individuals tries to keep himself in the — he tries to keep himself relevant,” Cormier said Thursday during a UFC 226 media teleconference. “And it’s easy to talk trash to me because people always ask me questions. We’re getting on the conference call with Stipe and I’m fighting next week and the first question is about Jon Jones. So then I answer the question, and he obviously sees my answer to the question, and so that gives him opportunity to kind of put himself back into relevancy.”

Cormier feels resigned to the fact that Jones got what he wanted, even though Jones had to go low to get a rise out of him. DC says it’s not the first time Jones has gone this route.

“It’s kind of what he does. Before our very first fight, there were some direct messages sent, and he called me, he said he was my daddy or some shit like that, right? And he, somebody told him something in reference to my father being murdered, and he had Dana call me on three-way to apologize for saying anything like, ‘I’m your daddy’ or something like that.”

Despite the knowledge that Cormier’s father was murdered in a 1986 incident, Jones still makes the “who’s your daddy” crack, and DC believes Jones knows full well what he’s doing when he makes the comment.

“Every time we start to argue he goes back to ‘I’m your daddy,’” Cormier said. “So he didn’t mean to apologize. He knows exactly what he’s doing. So there’s deeper meaning when he says ‘who’s your daddy?’ There’s deeper meaning because of the history and of him going through that unnecessary step of having Dana call me on the phone so he can personally apologize for saying anything about my father, when then he kind of goes right back to it any time we start to argue.”

Most fans know the story of Jones’ out-of-the-cage troubles by this point. His current suspension is related to his drug test failure following what had been a TKO victory over Cormier at UFC 214 in Anaheim, which was overturned to a no-contest.

Jones’ regulatory and legal issues have all but derailed a career many felt was well on its way to being the best in mixed martial arts history.

Cormier, for his part, is looking to become just the second fighter, after Conor McGregor, to simultaneously hold titles in two divisions when he fights Miocic. Cormier’s pair of fights with Jones are his only blemishes on an otherwise perfect career record across two weight classes.

DC believes a win over Miocic puts him in the conversation for the “greatest of all-time” discussion, and that Jones has disqualified himself from the debate.

“Any time a guy does performance-enhancing drugs and on multiple occasions, they eliminate themselves,” Cormier said. “So as great as Anderson Silva was, he tested positive two times, Jones has tested positive two or three times. Those guys eliminate themselves. I want to be mentioned among the greats, the Georges St-Pierres and Demetrious Johnsons and the guys who have done things the correct way over the course of entire career, without that asterisk.”

Either way, Cormier knows his legacy is forever tied to Jones, for better or worse.

“Regardless of what I do, it is always a part of my story,” Cormier said. “Stipe Miocic, I know he won’t test positive for anything. There will be no sex pill excuse, there will be no issues. He’s going come, he’s going to fight clean, and he’s going to fight hard. That’s what I want the focus to be. I don’t want to worry about a guy who is notorious for trying to screw me, himself, his family and everyone else. You guys can worry about him, you know? It’s crazy that a person who is so self-destructive can be held in such high regard in the sport. It’s sad.”