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Jon Jones out of UFC 178, Fight with Daniel Cormier Moved to UFC 182

UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones is withdrawing from his UFC 178 title defense opposite Daniel Cormier due to a leg injury. Bleacher Report’s Jeremy Botter first reported the news on Twitter, which the UFC then confirmed on Fox Sports 1’s …

Botter reported via Twitter the specific nature of the injury suffered in training:

The bout with Cormier is being rescheduled for UFC 182, which will take place on Jan. 3, 2015, in Las Vegas, Nevada. A flyweight title fight between champion Demetrious Johnson and Chris Cariaso is moving from UFC 177 to UFC 178, per the UFC’s official Twitter account, and will likely serve as the card’s new main event.

Jones and top light heavyweight contender Cormier have been engaged in a heated rivalry. The beef started years ago, when Cormier was still competing as a heavyweight in Strikeforce.

Cormier eventually moved down to the light heavyweight division, successfully defeating UFC newcomer Patrick Cummins and Pride legend Dan Henderson.

When former top contender Alexander Gustafsson was forced to withdraw from his UFC 178 fight with Jones, Cormier stepped in, and the two immediately began exchanging words.The rivalry came to a head last week, when the two fighters clashed in a massive brawl in front of the assembled media.

This turn of events is unfortunate, as UFC 178 was one of the strongest top-to-bottom cards the UFC had put together in a long while. It still includes the returns of former bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz and women’s bantamweight contender Cat Zingano, a crucial middleweight tilt between Tim Kennedy and Yoel Romero, a featherweight grudge match between Conor McGregor and Dustin Poirier and much more.

While the majority of the card remains intact, the loss of Jones vs. Cormier is profound.

Ben Fowkles of MMAJunkie and our own Jeremy Botter summed up the mood of the MMA community with their respective tweets.

Stick with Bleacher Report for more details as they become available.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

Ranking the Remaining 2014 UFC Title Fights

Even without pay-per-view penchants Anderson Silva or Georges St-Pierre, the greatest MMA promotion on the face of the planet found a way to give its fans several memorable title bouts through the first half of 2014.
Whether it was TJ Dillashaw’s…

Whether it was TJ Dillashaw’s dismantling of reigning bantamweight champion Renan Barao at UFC 173, the back and forth battle between Johny Hendricks and Robbie Lawler for the vacant welterweight strap at UFC 171, or Demetrious Johnson’s dominant, but routinely underappreciated, performance against Ali Bagautinov at UFC 174, the UFC has put on its fair share of jaw-dropping moments.

With six months left in the calendar year, Dana White and friends are looking to expand upon their already relatively successful year without either of the promotion’s biggest pay-per-view draws.

All of these fights garner the world’s attention, but only some of them will likely quench the thirst they’ve created within the MMA community.

Read on to see how the remaining 2014 UFC title fights stack up against each other.

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Anthony Pettis vs. Gilbert Melendez Lightweight Title Fight Slated for UFC Year-End Event

(Props: Anthony Pettis’s Facebook page)

During a news conference in Puerto Rico* yesterday, UFC president Dana White announced that the Anthony Pettis vs. Gilbert Melendez lightweight title fight will take place at the promotion’s traditional year-end event, which will likely go down December 27th in Las Vegas. Of course, the two fighters will see a lot of each other before then, as they’ve already been booked to coach TUF 20: The Strawweights, which begins airing in September.

Pettis hasn’t competed since UFC 164 last August, when he won the UFC lightweight belt off of Benson Henderson with a first-round armbar. Due to a subsequent knee injury and surgery, he’s been sidelined ever since — meaning that he’ll be taking on Melendez after a 16-month layoff. Melendez’s layoff will be almost as long. He last competed at UFC 166 in October, winning a unanimous decision against Diego Sanchez in a Fight of the Year candidate. Then, he almost wound up in Bellator. Long story.

* So what was the UFC doing in Puerto Rico, you ask? Well, the promotion is laying some groundwork to return there for the first time since UFC 8 — the February 1996 event where Gary Goodridge famously did this to Paul Herrera. An event date hasn’t been established, but Dana White guaranteed the UFC will hold an event in Puerto Rico in 2015, and said that Pettis (who is of Puerto Rican descent) will be involved.

(Props: Anthony Pettis’s Facebook page)