Jon Jones To Conor McGregor: ‘Thanks For The UFC 200 Slot’
The original main event for UFC 200 was scheduled to be the rematch between Conor McGregor and Nate Diaz. But due to McGregor refusing to be involved in some of the event’s promotional work, UFC president Dana White made the decision to pull him from the show.
McGregor tried to get back on the show several times after he was pulled. At one point, he even tweeted out that the UFC had put him back on the show, and he thanked both Dana White and Lorenzo Fertitta for “giving the fans what they want.” But that turned out to just be McGregor’s attempt to force the UFC brass to put him back on the show. It didn’t work.
The UFC 200 event is going on without Conor McGregor, and instead of finding a new opponent for Nate Diaz, the UFC decided to replace the original main event with a rematch between Jon Jones and Daniel Cormier.
Jones, who was stripped of the UFC light heavyweight championship last year after being involved in a hit-and-run in Albuquerque, New Mexico, will have a chance to regain the title that he never lost this coming July, and he’s not only thankful for the opportunity, he’s also thankful that Conor McGregor was pulled from the show.
On Saturday, Jones posted a video on his Instagram which saw him shooting a commercial for UFC 200. In the caption, he thanked Conor McGregor for the show’s main event slot.
After the Jones vs. Cormier rematch was made official for UFC 200, Conor McGregor took a shot at Jon Jones’ drawing power on Twitter.
Incorrect. I beat it by 400,000 buys.
Which alone was 100,000 more buys than UFC 197 made IN TOTAL. #KillShot https://t.co/HzidAJQ3Iu— Conor McGregor (@TheNotoriousMMA) May 2, 2016
Most believe that Jones vs. Cormier 2 won’t do as well as McGregor vs. Diaz 2 would have, but time will tell.
There is certainly some very real bad blood between Jones and Cormier, which will help sell the fight. But the fact that Jones already ran through him last year won’t help sell the fight because most believe that Jones is going to do the exact same thing to Cormier again.
Alexander Gustafsson, who was, by far, the toughest opponent for both Cormier and Jones, said in a recent interview that he still believes that Jon Jones is the best in the world, but he’ll be rooting for Daniel Cormier at UFC 200.
“It could go either way. We’ve seen very little from Jon Jones. He just had that fight and he didn’t do anything new. He didn’t do what he usually does with his tricks. DC has been evolving a lot. He’s always training hard. I want DC to win that fight, but you never know.”
If Cormier wins, well, then a rematch with Alexander Gustafsson may be on the horizon, which is probably why the “Swedish Mauler” is pulling for DC in the UFC 200 main event.
Gustafsson took Cormier to the limit last October, and he ended up losing a split decision, much like he did against Jon Jones.
No matter what the result of UFC 200 is, there’s s strong possibility that Gustafsson will end up getting a rematch with both men at some point in the future if he takes care of business in the light heavyweight division.
[Photo by Steve Marcus/Getty Images]
