Daniel Cormier will finally defend his UFC light heavyweight championship and will do so against a familiar opponent in Anthony ‘Rumble’ Johnson when the two go head-to-head in the main event at UFC 210.
The UFC officially announced Cormier vs. Johnson 2 yesterday and have earmarked the April 8th main event for the KeyBank Center in Buffalo, New York.
It will mark Cormier’s first fight since his 11th hour decision to take on Anderson Silva, who replaced Jon Jones in the co-main of UFC 200 last July. The last time Cormier actually defended his belt was back in October 2015, when he defeated Alexander Gustafsson at UFC 192 in timeless war.
Since losing to Cormier, Johnson has been on a war path himself and has absolutely ripped through the top of the 205lb division. His hit list has includes Jimi Manuwa, Ryan Bader and Glover Teixeira all by way of knockout, with the latter currently shortlisted for ‘Knockout of the Year’ in the Ninth Annual World MMA Awards.
The rematch was supposed to take place as the main event of UFC 206, which took place in Toronto last December. However, Cormier had to pull out due to injury and Johnson chose to wait for the champion.
Speaking to MMAFighting.com, Cormier had a message for the Canadian fans and it’s clear the close proximity of Buffalo had a huge impact on his decision to take the fight on this particular card.
“I want to let the great fans that bought tickets for UFC 206 in Toronto that this one is for you,” Cormier said. “99 miles is as close as I could get to make it up to you. That was very important to me. Thank you for the support, and I’ll see you in Buffalo.”
With former champion Jon Jones able to resume his career following his one-year suspension in July, the winner of Cormier vs. Rumble 2 will most likely matchup against Jones later this year.
Do you believe Rumble’s first round KO of Teixeira was the best knockout of 2016? Vote now at: worldmmaawards.com
