Daniel Cormier Disapproves of Herb Dean's Appointment as Referee, Jon Jones Responds in Kind

The seemingly innocuous news of Herb Dean being made the referee in charge of officiating the eagerly-anticipated rematch between Daniel Cormier and Jon Jones appears to have upset one of those parties involved.

This week saw the Nevada State Athletic Commission's (NSAC) decision to assign Herb Dean as the referee of the light heavyweight title fight, as he was before in their initial showdown at UFC 182 which saw Jones emerge as the victor.

However, Cormier isn't best pleased with the decision based off the first fight between the pair. According to MMA Mania, Cormier voiced his disapproval of Dean's appointment as referee to the NSAC while they were still in session over the phone.

Cormier expressed his opinion that Dean allowed Jones to "stall" the action in the fight's later rounds during his first bid to win the UFC light heavyweight belt—in turn costing him his unanimous decision loss. But, despite the pleas of DC, the NSAC ultimately decided to uphold their judgment.

Never one to miss out on an opportunity to ridicule his foe, Jones saw Cormier's complaints as the perfect chance to mock DC some more.

There is certainly no love lost between the pair. Jones was stripped of his title following his relatively comfortable unanimous decision victory over Cormier following his involvement in a hit-and-run incident.

In the interim, Jones had to watch on as Cormier submitted the dangerous Anthony Johnson to win the vacant light heavyweight belt, before defending his title in a back-and-forth fight against Swede Alexander Gustafsson—the one man who gave Jones similar trouble in their match at UFC 165 in 2013.

Both Cormier and Jones traded barbs throughout the latter's extended hiatus from MMA and the former's ongoing reign as the king of the 205lbs weight class. This came to a head at the UFC Unstoppable presser ahead of UFC 196.

The press conference left Cormier visibly perturbed by the boos he received from the on-watching crowd and the positive reaction Jones had received despite his very public legal misdemeanours.

The rematch sells itself. The pair already had a mutual dislike of each other stemming from incidents well before their first fight at UFC 182—whether it's their run-in while DC was still fighting under the Strikeforce banner or their infamous shoving match after their press conference promoting their first tilt—that's not mentioning the ensuing social media slanging match ever since.

However, this latest development adds yet another twist to the pre-fight preamble between the pair ahead of UFC 197 when they finally get to lay their hands on each other for the second time (in an official setting) on April 23rd in Las Vegas.