UFC Reinstates Daniel Cormier As Light Heavyweight Champ

Well, that didn’t take long.

Hours after Jon Jones’ third-round knockout win over Daniel Cormier in the main event of July 29’s UFC 214 was changed to a no-contest due to Jones failing a drug test for turinabol, the UFC has officially reinstated “DC” as the official champion.

Cormier revealed that he had spoken with UFC president Dana White and he informed he had been reinstated as the champ during tonight’s episode of UFC Tonight, which he co-hosts:

“If it’s a no contest, then the fight didn’t happen,” Cormier said. “[White] said, ‘If one of you guys would have missed weight, he would have won the fight, but you still would have kept the belt. Because of that, the championship is getting returned to you.’ The fight is a no contest. If he cheated, he could not have fought and cheated and still won the fight.

“Once again, I’m the UFC champion.”

The UFC also confirmed that news on their official website, releasing an official statement on the division:

“UFC was informed Wednesday that the result of the UFC 214 bout between Jon Jones and Daniel Cormier on July 29 was overturned by the California State Athletic Commission. The ruling changes the Jones ‘win’ to a ‘no contest’ following a potential Anti-Doping Policy violation stemming from an in-competition sample collected after Jones’ weigh-in on July 28, 2017.

As this was a title bout, Cormier will be reinstated as UFC light heavyweight champion.”

Cormier first won the title when Jones was pulled from his scheduled bout with Anthony Johnson at 2015’s UFC 187 months after Jones had beaten Cormier by decision at UFC 182 that January. The trouble-making UFC great was arrested for hitting a 25-year-old pregnant woman, putting him on the sidelines until he returned in a lackluster victory over Ovince Saint Preux at UFC 197.

He was then set to take on Cormier at UFC 200 in July 2016, but a failed USADA drug test for banned substances clomiphene and letrozole for which he was suspended for a year and only returned from to defeat Cormier at UFC 214.

The once and now-current champ Cormier knows he’s going to be called a “paper champ” just as he was during his entire reign, and he never beat Jones. But he’s ready for it, and he stated he’d be foolish to turn down the championship payday if he would be fighting for the championship anyway.

In his eyes, it’s Jones who cheated the fans, so giving him the championship back is the only right thing to do:

“People will say stuff like, well you got handed the belt,” Cormier said. “He cheated and the reality is for me to say, ‘I don’t want this title,’ when I was gonna be in a championship fight anyway, financially it’s just a big difference if I don’t fight as the champion as opposed to fighting for the title.

“He disqualified himself for taking a steroid before the fight, so it didn’t happen,” Cormier said. “So now I get the belt back, which is the right thing to do. And I’m not only saying that because it’s me. It’s the right thing to do. You don’t cheat the sport, you don’t cheat the fans, you don’t cheat me. You have all the physical advantages, sir. You’re 30 years old, you’re 6-4, you’ve got an 85-inch reach. I’m 38 years old. I would love to take stuff and not have to wake up every morning and walk down my stairs sideways.”

Finally, Cormier put it in concise terms, noting that he and Jones had one of the biggest bouts of 2017, but Jones had messed it up again: