Daniel Cormier vs. Jon Jones rematch to banner UFC 200
The Conor McGregor fiasco for UFC 200 is all but over after the Ultimate Fighting Championship's Dana White announced via "Good Morning America" that a light heavyweight title unification fight pitting Jon Jones against Daniel Cormier will instead become the main event in Vegas.
The announcement comes after McGregor surprised everyone by announcing Sunday on Twitter that he's back on the card. There ostensibly was no truth to it after all, reiterating the UFC's response that the tweet was "not accurate."
Jones impressed in his first fight in more than a year when he soundly defeated Ovince Saint Preux at UFC 197 last weekend. Incidentally, the last time he fought prior to winning the interim heavyweight title against Saint Preux, was against Cormier back in January of last year. However, he failed to continue his streak after getting arrested in Albuquerque, getting charged with a felony hit-and-run. After the incident, the UFC was forced to strip him of his title.
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With Jones out, Cormier took advantage and won the vacant title at UFC 187, defeating Anthony Johnson via submission, and later defended it against Alexander Gustafsson, although he barely escaped via split decision.
The two were supposed to fight at UFC 197 but Cormier suffered a foot injury that forced him to withdraw less than a month to the fight.
As usual, Jones, regarded as the top fighter in mixed martial arts, pound-for-pound, is confident he'll beat Cormier. "Me and my team have been working extensively on a strategy and game plan to beat Daniel Cormier. I got thrown a last minute change of opponent and felt I did great with it, given the circumstances," he said.
McGregor Kept Himself Out of the Card
Meanwhile, White told ESPN in a recent interview that he was the one who removed McGregor from the card and that it was a decision that was unpopular among MMA fans. However, he deemed it necessary because the Irish fighter knew what his responsibilities were, but chose not to do them.
