Jon “Bones” Jones has been out of MMA for more than a year, last earning a unanimous-decision victory against Ovince Saint Preux at UFC 197 on April 23, 2016. That was for the organization’s interim light heavyweight championship belt after Cormier was injured.
Jones (22-1) had previously been stripped of the title following his involvement in a hit-and-run accident almost exactly a year earlier, and he would lose his interim title after a failed drug test before UFC 200.
Regardless, the former 205-pound champ is listed as a big -250 favorite (bet $250 to win $100) at sportsbooks monitored by OddsShark for his title fight rematch versus Daniel Cormier at UFC 214 this Saturday in Anaheim, California.
Cormier (19-1) is the current light heavyweight champ, and he will be looking to avenge a unanimous-decision loss to Jones for the title at UFC 182 back on January 3, 2015. The two have feuded on and off since then, and they were originally supposed to headline UFC 200 in Las Vegas last summer before Jones was pulled due to the failed test.
Cormier ended up fighting Anderson Silva in a non-title bout and later defended his championship belt for a second time against Anthony “Rumble” Johnson with another rear-naked choke submission victory at UFC 210 on April 8. The former Olympic wrestler is again an underdog opposite Jones at +195 (bet $100 to win $195).
Stylistically, Cormier needs to take Jones to the ground in order to be successful and pull off the upset. Johnson was arguably the most feared striker in the UFC before losing to Cormier twice, and he had no answers from the mat. Jones has five-inch height and 12-inch reach advantages to lean on and should be able to keep Cormier at a distance if they stay on their feet in a stand-up battle like the first bout.
There are two other championship fights featured on the UFC 214 main card, with the welterweight and women’s featherweight titles also on the line. Tyron Woodley (17-3-1) will face Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu ace Demian Maia (25-6) as a -205 favorite at online betting sites after going 4-0-1 in his past five bouts. Maia is a +165 underdog and has won seven in a row.
Cristiane “Cyborg” Justino (17-1, 1 no-contest) will finally get a chance to win UFC gold too when she takes on Invicta FC bantamweight champ Tonya Evinger (19-5, 1 NC). Justino is the former Invicta FC featherweight champ, and she is a massive -1100 chalk on the UFC 214 odds as the biggest favorite on the card. Evinger is a +650 underdog and earned the Invicta title in 2015, last defending the belt on March 25 with a RNC submission of Yana Kunitskaya.
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