Jon Jones, Daniel Cormier to fight in main event at UFC 200

Daniel Cormier, right, kicks Jon Jones during their light heavyweight title bout at UFC 182, Saturday, Jan. 3, 2015, in Las Vegas. Credit: AP
UFC 200 has its new main event.
Jon Jones will challenge champion Daniel Cormier for the UFC light heavyweight title at UFC 200 on July 9 in Las Vegas.
The fight was made official on Wednesday’s episode of “Good Morning America.”
“Yesssss! Let’s go. I’ve been wanting this,” Cormier wrote on Instagram. “@ufc 100. I hadn’t decided to even fight yet. Now I’m defending my belt at biggest event in history. After what I saw last weekend. This will be light work. #bumjones #andstill @jonnybones.”
Cormier and Jones have quite the history of verbal attacks. Jones was understated in his Instagram account.
“#UFC200 #Champion,” he wrote.
The Cormier-Jones fight replaces the originally scheduled main event that fell apart last week when featherweight Conor McGregor was removed from the card. He was supposed to fight Nate Diaz. In between McGregor’s retirement and unretirement tweets, UFC president Dana White said the Irishman was removed from the major event because he refused to come to the United States for UFC 200 media events and promotional obligations this month.
Jones returned to the Octagon last week after more than a year away and defeated Ovince Saint Preux by unanimous decision to win the interim title.
Jones had been stripped of his UFC light heavyweight title last year after running afoul of the law again.
Before that, though, Jones beat Cormier at UFC 182 in January 2015 in what was his last title defense. Cormier then won the vacant title at UFC 187 with a third-round stoppage of Anthony “Rumble” Johnson.
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