It has been officially announced that the main event at UFC 178 featuring Jon "Bones" Jones versus Daniel Cormier will be cancelled.
Fans were so excited to see the two light heavyweights get their hands on each other after their pre-fight brawl the past week. The two generated a lot of hype when they attacked each other during a stare down at the MGM Grand casino lobby earlier this month. The UFC has yet to announce a penalty for the behavior of the two fighters. Just hours after the brawl, the two apologized in public for the scuffle.
However, an article by MMA Fighting revealed that the match will be postponed from September 27, 2014 to January 3, 2015.
The main reason is that Jones suffered an injury. He sprained an ankle and tore his meniscus while in wrestling practice on August 11.
The main event for UFC 178 has gone through major adjustments in the past several weeks. Jones was supposed to fight Alexander Gustafsson on September 27 but the latter had a knee injury and was replaced by Cormier. Cormier chose not to proceed with a scheduled corrective knee surgery to let the fight happen between him and Jones. Now, Yahoo! Sports confirms that Cormier is very disappointed with the news.
He said, "I would be outside of myself to not say I went into this fight knowing my knee was pretty jacked up, and I was going to fight through it to get a title," he said.
Cormier added,"I started to train very hard. It's a little discouraging, but now I have time to get completely healthy. I don't know how hurt Jon is but we have to remember that I took this fight with a pre-existing injury. I could have fought through it, I just wish he would have done the same."
Cormier shared that he was concerned about being put behind Gustaffson again, should the Swede fully recover in January.
The UFC announced in a press release on August 12 that they will be refunding tickets to fans who request such. The refund deadline is on August 22.
In a report by Blackberg TV, Jones, who has a record of 20-1, will fight Cormier, who has a record of 15-0, at UFC 182. The two will still be the main event at the year-end show in Las Vegas. In lieu of the cancelled main event at UFC 178, Demetrious Johnson will fight Chris Cariaso for the flyweight championship title.