On Saturday night, the UFC touched down in sunny Anaheim, California with the stacked UFC 214. This unforgettable card was topped by a light heavyweight title grudge match between reigning champ Daniel Cormier and former champ Jon Jones.
Though Cormier had some real success early on, Jones sent him crashing to the mat mid-way through the third with a thunderous head-kick. From there, Jones polished the champ off with a violent shelling of ground-strikes. Seconds later, he was being peeled off Cormier by veteran referee Big John McCarthy. The light heavyweight title was once again his.
It was a disastrous moment for Cormier, and a euphoric one for Jones. Given this, you can probably imagine that the fighters’ corners had very different reactions to Jones’ fight-ending strikes. In the video at the top of this post, you can listen to Cormier’s team through the end of fight, and Jones’ team as he strikes his way to the knockout win.
With this emphatic win, Jones moves to 2-0 over Cormier, which would seem to drain most of the life out of their rivalry – as Cormier suggested himself post fight. Jones can now once again call him the champ after more than two years without the belt.
Cormier, meanwhile, returns to the light heavyweight contender race after an exciting run as champ, during which he defended the belt against top-flight foes in Alexander Gustafsson and Anthony “Rumble” Johnson.
There will be a multi-fight contract waiting for former UFC champion Cain Velasquez when he gets out of prison—if he decides he wants to compete again.
