UFC 214

UFC 214: Cormier vs. Jones 2 was a mixed martial arts event produced by the Ultimate Fighting Championship and held on July 29, 2017, at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California.

Background

A PPV event was initially planned for Anaheim on January 21, 2017, but was rescheduled for this date after a lack of suitable headlining fights could be arranged for the initial date in January.

A UFC Light Heavyweight Championship bout between current champion Daniel Cormier and former champion Jon Jones had been targeted for this event. The pairing met previously at UFC 182 in January 2015 with Jones defending his title via unanimous decision. Subsequent to that victory, Jones was stripped of the title and suspended indefinitely from the UFC in connection with a hit-and-run incident in which he was involved. Cormier replaced him and went on to defeat Anthony Johnson at UFC 187 to win the vacant title. Their rematch was originally expected to take place at UFC 197, but Cormier pulled out three weeks before the event due to injury and was replaced by Ovince Saint Preux, in what became an interim title bout. Jones went on to defeat Saint Preux by unanimous decision and won the interim title. The fight was scheduled again and was expected to headline UFC 200 in July 2016. However, Jones was pulled out of the fight by USADA due to a potential Anti-Doping Policy violation stemming from an out-of-competition sample collection on June 16. Jones' "B" sample also came positive for the same substances and Jones was suspended for one year, retroactively to July 6, 2016. The Cormier-Jones rematch was officially announced on May 12, though its status as main event or co-headliner was not initially confirmed. UFC president Dana White confirmed that the bout would headline this event, despite previous issues regarding Jones. He also announced that Jimi Manuwa would participate on this card and should anything happen to the