The UFC 200 light heavyweight championship bout between current belt-holder Daniel Cormier and former champion Jon Jones has been canceled. Jones reportedly failed to pass an anti-doping test earlier this week, leaving UFC President Dana White with no choice but to call off the title fight.
But with UFC 200 still set to happen on Saturday and Cormier still rearing to fight, White decided on Thursday evening that Cormier will face off in a non-title fight against former middleweight champion Anderson Silva.
A video provided by UFC shows the exact moment when White informed Cormier that he would no longer be facing Jones, who is his biggest and most-hated UFC rival by far. Cormier’s reaction was one of complete devastation.
(The meeting between Cormier and White begins at 4:12.)
“Oh man, I trained so hard,” Cormier says in the video as he pleads with White to allow the fight to go on, “Like, is there anything I can do? I’ll sign a release, and we can just fight?”
Cormier’s only professional loss (17-1) came at the hands of Jones on Jan. 3, 2015. Now it seems Cormier will no longer have the chance to redeem himself against the No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter in the world.
The rest of the scheduled fights for UFC 200 are still on and will take place at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, on July 9.
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