Watch a pair of title fights get previewed in Countdown to UFC 232.
With UFC 232 less than a week away, the promotion has released its trademark Countdown show, which previews the pay-per-view event and takes an in-depth look at the two title fights that top the year-end card.
In the highly-anticipated main event, Jon Jones meets Alexander Gustafsson in a rematch from their 2013 “Fight of the Year.” Daniel Cormier currently holds the UFC light heavyweight title, but “DC” will be stripped of the belt as soon as Jones vs. Gustafsson 2 begins, and the rematch will determine the new 205-pound titleholder.
Unsurprisingly, a Jones fight week did indeed begin in bizarre fashion. On Sunday, it was announced that the card had been moved from Las Vegas to Los Angeles, after an abnormal drug-test result for “Bones.” Jones tested positive for a trace amount of turinabol, the same steroid metabolite found in his system after his Cormier rematch in August 2017. Jones served a 15-month suspension for that failure, which ended in October.
USADA, the UFC’s anti-doping partner, determined that Jones’ recent positive test as a result of his 2017 positive test, not a new ingestion. So it’s not a new USADA violation, and therefore Jones is free to fight on Saturday.
But there’s a twist: Nevada did not license Jones for UFC 232 because of the odd test result, so the entire card was shifted to the Los Angeles area, where Jones will be allowed to fight.
In the UFC 232 co-main event, women’s featherweight champ Cris Cyborg puts her title on the line against women’s bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes in a superfight and one of the most intriguing women’s MMA fights in the sport’s history.
UFC 232 takes place at The Forum in Inglewood, California on Dec. 29. The full Countdown episode can be watched above, and here’s a look at the full fight card:
Main card (pay-per-view) — 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT
Jon Jones vs. Alexander Gustafsson — for light heavyweight title
Cris Cyborg vs. Amanda Nunes — for women’s featherweight title
Carlos Condit vs. Michael Chiesa
Corey Anderson vs. Ilir Latifi
Chad Mendes vs. Alexander Volkanovski
Preliminary card (FS1) — 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT
Andrei Arlovski vs. Walt Harris
Cat Zingano vs. Megan Anderson
Douglas Silva de Andrade vs. Petr Yan
B.J. Penn vs. Ryan Hall
Early preliminary card (UFC Fight Pass) — 6 p.m. ET/3 p.m. PT
Nathaniel Wood vs. Andre Ewell
Uriah Hall vs. Bevon Lewis
Curtis Millender vs. Siyar Bahadurzada
Brian Kelleher vs. Montel Jackson