The Ultimate Fighting Championship held their 2017 Summer Kickoff Press Conference in Dallas, TX this afternoon, the day before their upcoming UFC 211 pay-per-view event, to announce several headline fights scheduled to take place at upcoming UFC events during the summer, including a highly anticipated rematch between UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Daniel Cormier (19-1) defending his championship against challenger and former champion Jon “Bones” Jones (22-1) at UFC 214 in Anaheim, CA at the Honda Center on July 29th, 2017.
Both Cormier and Jones have had a long, public feud with each other for a number of years, which included a brawl at a promotional event for UFC 178. The first official fight inside the Octagon between the two took place on January 3rd, 2015 at UFC 182 in Las Vegas, NV when Jones successfully defended the UFC Light Heavyweight Championship via unanimous decision against Cormier, while also handing Cormier the first loss of his MMA career. Jones would eventually be stripped of his title on April 28th, 2015 after he was suspended by the UFC due to a hit-and-run incident that Jones was involved in.
Cormier would go on to win the vacant UFC Light Heavyweight Championship on May 23rd, 2015 at UFC 187 in Las Vegas, NV by defeating Anthony “Rumble” Johnson after making him submit to a Rear Naked Choke in the third round of their five-round championship fight. Cormier would go on to successfully defend his title against Alexander Gustafsson and Anthony Johnson.
Several attempts at scheduling a rematch in 2016 between Jones and Cormier would end up falling apart. The first attempt at a scheduled rematch was expected to take place on April 23, 2016 at UFC 197, however the fight would be called off due to Cormier suffering a foot injury. Jones would end up facing Ovince Saint Preux, and would defeat him via Unanimous Decision to win the interim UFC Light Heavyweight Championship. Jones and Cormier were again expected to have a rematch at UFC 200 on July 9, 2016 to unify the titles. However, Jones would eventually be removed from the fight on July 6, 2016 due to a potential out-of-competition anti-doping policy violation. Jones would also eventually be stripped of his interim title. Jones would be replaced by Anderson Silva in a non-title bout that saw Cormier get a Unanimous Decision victory over the former UFC Middleweight Champion.
Prior to the Summer Kickoff Press Conference event today in Dallas, reports and videos surfaced of Jones and Cormier nearly getting into a physical confrontation. The two would go on to have some heated exchanges at the press conference, with Cormier trying to go after for Jon Jones for allegedly mentioning his kids, with no shortage of the usual trash talking between the two fighters. During the press conference, both Cormier and Jones would exchange insults and heated words with each other.
Jon jones and D.C. Going at it already ? pic.twitter.com/NMBkN9Mlm9
— Kevin Lee MTP (@MoTownPhenom) May 12, 2017
“I beat you after a weekend of cocaine,” Jones said at the press conference. “And prostitutes,” replied Cormier.
Click below to watch the press conference. The event starts around 8:45 in the video.
During the fighter face offs at the end of the press conference, Jones appeared on stage with a UFC Championship belt, mocking Cormier. The two fighters would continue to exchange words on stage, with a group of officials and UFC employees trying to keep the two separated.
The only physical confrontation that took place during the press conference was between lightweight fighters Kevin Lee and Michael Chiesa, who are slated to face each other at UFC Fight Night 112, after Chiesa had been offended by some of Lee’s comments.
Earlier this week, the UFC announced a featherweight division bout between “The Korean Superboy” Dooho Choi (14-2) going up against Andre Fili (16-4) for the July 29th, 2017 event. No other fights have been officially announced.
UFC 214 takes place July 29th, 2017 at the Honda Center in Anaheim, CA and will air on Pay-Per-View. Prelims will air on UFC Fight Pass and Fox Sports. Tickets for this event go on sale to the public on June 9th, 2017 at 10AM PT. Fight Club presale tickets go on sale June 7th, 2017 at 10AM PT, and UFC Newsletter presale tickets go on sale June 8th, 2017 at 10AM PT. More information will be made available at the UFC 214 mini-site on UFC.com.
Stay tuned to SoCalUncensored.com for news and updates.
*Update: Story has been updated to include details about the incident between Daniel Cormier and Jon Jones before the press conference.*
