Jon Jones stripped of title, Daniel Cormier reinstated as champion
Jon Jones stripped of UFC belt for second time
Earlier today the California State Athletic Commission ruled the UFC 214 title contest between Daniel Cormier and Jon Jones, a no-contest. Jones ultimately won the fight and the light heavyweight title via knockout.
Weeks later tests showed that Jones had taken an illegal substance. Yesterday, a second sample also showed a positive result. This prompted the CSAS to meet today and making the ruling change.
There was no word from the UFC about the title picture however because Jones had not yet been suspended.
Hours later, UFC officials announced that Jones would be stripped of the title and Cormier reinstated. This did not sit entirely well with Cormier because he felt fans would not accept the decision.
“I talked to [CSAC] and was like, ‘I lost. I lost the fight,'” Cormier said. “As a competitor, that’s how I felt. [UFC president] Dana White called me today and said, ‘If it’s a no-contest, then the fight didn’t happen.’
“Now, people will say stuff like, ‘You got handed the belt.’ He cheated. The reality is, for me to say, ‘I don’t want this title,’ when I was going to be [fighting] in a championship anyway, financially it’s just a big difference if I don’t fight as the champion as opposed to fighting for a vacant title.”
This marks the second time that Jones was stripped of the official title. He was also stripped of the interim title, marking it three times a UFC belt was taken from him due as a result of his actions.
“UFC was informed Wednesday that the result of the UFC 214 bout between Jon Jones and Daniel Cormier on July 29 was overturned by the California State Athletic Commission. The ruling changes the Jones ‘win’ to a ‘no contest’ following a potential Anti-Doping Policy violation stemming from an in-competition sample collected after Jones’ weigh-in on July 28, 2017.
As this was a title bout, Cormier will be reinstated as UFC light heavyweight champion.”
