It’s official, a long-awaited 205lb title rematch between current champion Daniel Cormier and Jon Jones will headline UFC 214 on July 29th in Anaheim, California.
The fight was confirmed at the UFC’s ‘Summer Kickoff’ press conference on Friday, and despite Dana White having previously claimed that Jones wouldn’t get main event status due to a lack of faith in the troubled star, it seems that he relented in the end.
However, White told reporters last night that the plan is to have current No.3 contender Jimi Manuwa also fight on the card, providing the UFC with an additional opponent to fight Cormier if for any reason Jones drops out before fight night.
The reason for White’s concern stems from Jones unruly conduct over the past couple of years since he earned a unanimous decision victory over Cormier in 2015.
Just month after that win Jones was arrested after being the instigator in a hit-and-run incident and as a result was stripped of his title.
Jones managed to get a plea deal to avoid jail time and vowed to turn his life around, but though he’d go on to win the interim 205lb title against Ovince St. Preux the following year, Jones again hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons when he was removed from a headlining rematch with Cormier at UFC 200 during fight week after failing a drug test.
While Jones life has been under a dark cloud Cormier has been thriving, defeating Anthony Johnson to win the light-heavyweight title and then beating the likes of Alexander Gustafsson, Anderson Silva and then ‘Rumble’ for a second time.
Still, many still believe that Jones is the best pound-for-pound fighter in the sport today, and so Cormier knows he still has to avenge his loss to him before he can truly claim to be the best 205lb fighter on the planet.
