With Jon Jones off handling his latest adventure in self-sabotage for the time being, the list of potential matchups for light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier is currently about as enticing as a bowl of sh*t soup, pardon my French.
The second-ranked Alexander Gustafsson — who arguably gave Cormier the toughest fight of his career at UFC 192 — can’t stay healthy long enough to mount anything resembling a comeback. The fourth-ranked Ryan Bader has just been booked against Lil Nog in Gusty’s absence (and also happens to be Ryan Bader). The fifth-ranked Ovince St. Preux lost an uninspired match against Jones in his last performance and Rashad Evans is currently ranked seventh in the division despite dropping down to middleweight for his upcoming fight and not scoring a win since 2013.
So with its options extremely limited, the UFC has been all but forced to book it’s champion against the only man in the top 10 who has actually been winning the majority of his fights. Hint: It’s the guy with murder balls for fists who sent Glover Teixeira’s teeth flying into the rafters in his last performance.
Yes, Daniel Cormier and Anthony “Rumble” Johnson are going to do the damn thing again. According MMAFighting, the fight has been booked for the UFC’s return to Canada at UFC 206. Said Cormier of the fight:
The city of Toronto is still buzzing after the Blue Jays’ walk-off home run last night. The only thing more exciting than that is that I am defending the undisputed UFC light heavyweight title in the Six on December 10 at UFC 206, only on pay-per-view. Down will go Rumble … again.
Interesting phrasing, DC.
In case you’ve recently been struck in the head by a large object, the fight will serve as a rematch of the UFC 187 main event, which transpired just over a year ago when, you guessed it, Jon Jones did something stupid and forced that resulted in him being pulled from the event. After surviving an early onslaught, Cormier went on to dominate Johnson for two and half rounds before submitting him in the third round with a rear-naked choke.
All things considered, DC vs. Rumble II is honestly about the best fight that the UFC could book. While Cormier should obviously emerge as a heavy favorite given his performance in the first fight, Johnson’s dynamite fists always leave open the possibility for an upset. With champions dropping like flies these days, could Johnson emerge as the next light heavyweight champion? Only time will tell, but all I can say for sure is that Dana White would secretly love it if that happened.
