The rematch is set… again
If the past two years have taught us anything it is that nobody should get their hopes up about the highly anticipated rematch between Jon Jones and Daniel Cormier. The blood feud between the two top light heavyweights reached a new level of intrigue when Jones after Jones was stripped of the title and Cormier proclaimed himself as the real champion after beating Anthony ‘Rumble’ Johnson back in May 2015.
Cormier has successfully defended his title twice since winning and had four straight victories, but all coming after a lopsided unanimous decision loss to Jones when they first fought for the title.
The reversed roles of champion and challenger have only made the rematch more intriguing, and the words spouted off by both fighters have only built more animosity and hatred between the two.
Cormier and Jones are set to fight for the second time on July 29 in Anaheim, California in the main event of UFC 214. That card may replace the post 4th of July card as the summer’s grandest event for the sport. If they actually fight that is.
We’ve been down this road before. This is the third time this rematch has been scheduled, but and injury forced Cormier to pull out once and another suspension led to Jones being pulled off the card the second time.
So maybe the rematch will finally happen, but as Cormier said before after learning the scheduled UFC 200 fight was canceled, you can’t invest yourself emotionally in this fight and leave yourself open to a huge letdown when it does not happen. But if it does happen, it’s about time. It’s needed to happen and with the rest of the 205 division cleaning itself out the way it has – with Johnson knocking out all the other top-ranked fighters and then losing twice to Cormier – there is no other fight that can make sense.
Jimi Manuwa called for a title shot, but nothing about his resume looks even remotely championship fight worthy. Johnson lost twice and now retired, Gustafsson lost his title opportunity and Glover Teixeira was quickly knocked out by Johnson. Manuwa was also knocked out by both Johnson and Gustafsson, the only two men Cormier has beaten with the title on the line.
The reason the UFC is pushing for Jones to come back is because there are no other light heavyweights worthy of a title shot. It’s Cormier and Jones and everybody else, so as long as a rematch is possible, they should continue to push to make that fight happen. But until it actually happens, there is no point banking on it.
Corey Johns
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