Cormier issued a response to Jones

"Look guys, John is out due to injury, so Tom Aspinall is now the champion. I understand that. But that's not what was going on when we fought him. He misrepresented the situation. Aspinall won the belt because John got injured. I was beaten by John, but he was disqualified. Those are two different situations. In my case, he got caught doing something he shouldn't have been doing - he was stripped of the title and suspended from competing. He couldn't compete not because of an injury, but because of banned substances found in his system. That's my answer. Jones, it wasn't the same, buddy. So no matter how much of a wizard you are at manipulating words, that's not the case. It was different back then. You couldn't compete when I was fighting. You couldn't make the decision and come out to fight, but you can do it now."