As if UFC 200 wasn’t already littered with storylines, add the re-match between bitter rivals, Light Heavy weight champ Daniel Cormier and Interim champion Jon Jones to the mix.
Yes, you read correctly Jon “Bones” Jones vs Daniel Cormier 2 is now set to headline, the colossal UFC 200 fight card in Las Vegas, Nevada July 9. This bout will be to unify the Light Heavyweight championship to determine the UFC undisputed Light Heavyweight Champion of the World.
News broke early Wednesday during an TV appearance by Dana White on the Good Morning America show.
“UFC 200 has been, uh, interesting to say the least putting this thing together. There’s been some crazy things that have gone on. Some ups and downs. Jon Jones just fought on Saturday night and won his fight against OSP. He’s been out for 15 months, and now he’s back, and he wants his light heavyweight UFC title back. So the main event will be Daniel Cormier versus Jon Jones.” Said White.
This news comes just one week after Conor McGregor was pulled from card after failure to comply with some media obligations.
Jones and Cormier have one of if not the most heated rivalry in the history of the sport. These two first met at UFC 182 in early 2015. Where Jones bested Cormier via unanimous decision. After a series of self-destructive events Jones was stripped of the belt. Daniel Cormier then picked up the vacated title after defeating Anthony “Rumble” Johnson. The two were originally set to fight at UFC 197, but was canceled due to an injury sustained by Cormier.
These two have had disdain for one another immediately after they first met, hate at first sight I presume. The pair first crossed paths way back in 2010 back stage of UFC 121 after DC’s teammate Cain Velasquez defeated Brock Lesnar for the heavyweight strap. Now there are of course two renditions of the story. Each recant their version;
Jon Jones: 
“I met him, and I came up to him with a big smile on my face. He’s another black guy in the sport, and I felt the need to say hello to him, and I was just like ‘hey man, I hear you’re a great wrestler’ and all this stuff, and he’s like ‘Yeah, yeah, you don’t know who I am?’ I’m like ‘No I don’t know who you are, but my coaches were telling me that you wrestle on the Olympic level.’ And I was like ‘I bet you that I could take you down. It was my way of trying to develop a new friendship, and he just took it so seriously, and he was just so offended that I didn’t know who he was, and from that moment on he decided that there was a beef between us. I was just trying to reach out to him at that moment, and he just decided that there wouldn’t be a friendship between us. It’s cool by me. If this guy has some kind of personal vendetta or chose to have a beef with me it’s fine. It just kind of sucks because both of us being African-American guys in the sport I think we should get along and respect each other, but that’s not the case.”
Daniel Cormier: 
“I didn’t expect Jon Jones to know who I was as an Olympian. I don’t expect Jon Jones to know any wrestlers. He was the guy that was coming up to be the UFC champion. What I said was, ‘How do you break the ice by insulting someone?’ That’s the only problem I had. It was the first time he and I ever interacted. He walked up to me, a very tall individual. He looked down on me and started to make derogatory comments towards me, talking about how he could take me down easy and stuff…You don’t even know who I am, guy!”
Who knows what truly transpired between the two, seems kind of petty at a glance. I can take you down! No you can’t type of thing, but wars have been started over less, right? The feud came to a head and was introduced to the main stream August 4, 2015 during a UFC 178 promo event, after DC replaced the injured Alexander Gustafasson. The two faced off, on the press stage, for the cameras. What ensued will forever be cemented in UFC history. The two faced off and literally butted heads. A violent eruption ensued after DC shoved Jones by the throat. Jones retaliated and threw a punch and tackled Cormier off stage where the two had to be separated by security. Since then the pair have declared all-out war on one another via the media. The two event went as far as threating each other’s lives on several TV interviews. This rivalry is as real and intense of a beef that the sport has seen in sometime, if not the most. Jones just recently seen Cormier after he was exiting the cage, after defeating OSP at UFC 200, and greeted him by flipping him the bird.
One thing is certain, when these two meet, fireworks are sure to follow. The beef is very much alive and real. Grab your popcorn folks and enjoy the show.