UFC’s Daniel Cormier has no apologies over his treatment of Jon Jones

Although Jon Jones has submitted a positive test for cocaine, hurt a pregnant woman in a car crash where marijuana paraphernalia was found and he’s been stripped of his UFC belt, it’s light-heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier who’s being treated as the heel in their bitter rivalry.

Cormier’s response to Jones’ troubles, referring to him as a “junkie” in one Twitter post, has triggered a backlash from fans irked by the champion’s morality play.

At a March news conference to announce a rematch of a January 2015 fight Jones won by unanimous decision, Cormier was booed for jabbing Jones over his troubles.

And again Thursday, in a conference call with reporters, the pair argued, with Cormier telling Jones, “You can [mess] up as much as you want, I don’t care. Everybody’s coming up to me saying, ‘I can’t wait for you to beat Jon Jones,’ [and] I’m like, ‘I got it.’

“I carried emotion into that [first] fight, I’m not doing that again.”

Cormier, who serves as a UFC analyst on Fox, has occasionally come across awkwardly as a company man in the role.

In Thursday’s call, however, he said he doesn’t regret being who he is.

“That’s the approach I will always take,” Cormier said. “I’m an adult, not one to kick someone when they’re down. If anything, I think any upstanding citizen -- any good person -- would do the same thing,” in criticizing Jones’ transgressions.

“I don’t regret it. I would not change a thing. I will still do the things I always do.”

Cormier, 37, said his victories over top contenders Alexander Gustafsson and Anthony Johnson in Jones’ absence have assured him he’ll win the rematch while pointing to the strain of Jones’ issues as a factor, too.

“Yeah, I do believe the changes in him will affect the outcome of the fight,” Cormier said.

“But I also believe the strongest indicator will be that I’ve gotten better. I’ve done things to improve myself. So even if he’s 10 times better than he was last January, I don’t believe that’s going to be enough to beat me on July 9.”