Less than 24 hours after Daniel Cormier removed himself from his April 23 fight with Jon Jones at UFC 197 because of an injury, the UFC announced Saturday it found a replacement in Ovince St. Preux.
UFC President Dana White said the fight will be for the interim light heavyweight title, per MMAFighting.com. Cormier currently holds the title.
Jeremy Botter of FloSports was the first to report the main event replacement.
Jones (21-1) and St. Preux (19-7) have never fought each other.
In an Instagram post earlier Saturday, Jones urged the UFC to find a substitute—even if it meant the former light heavyweight champion had to take on a heavyweight opponent:
Shortly thereafter, Jones' publicist tweeted he would instead be fighting Anthony "Rumble" Johnson but quickly deleted the post and issued an apology for her premature announcement:
Jones avoided jail time after surrendering to a warrant on five charges related to drag racing Thursday, per Steven Marrocco of MMA Junkie.
Rashad Evans, who lost to Jones at UFC 145 in April 2012, was also rumored to be in the mix as Cormier's replacement, per Ariel Helwani of MMAFighting.com. Evans, however, is slated to fight Glover Teixeira on April 16.
The UFC stripped Jones, the former light heavyweight champion, of his title in April 2015 and suspended him for six months for a hit-and-run incident in New Mexico, and Cormier claimed the vacant title.
Cormier and Jones haven’t fought since January 2015, a title bout Jones won, and the championship rematch between the bitter rivals was highly anticipated.
Jones doesn't tend to take to last-minute fights, and he declined one in 2012 that ended with the cancellation of UFC 151. At the time, White called it "probably one of my all-time lows as being president of UFC."
But the former champ clearly has a different outlook this time around, as he noted in his Instagram post, saying: "Hey, y'all know I'm not into taking last-minute fights, it's not the way me and my trainers do things. But this last year's been real crazy and I feel like I owe my fans so much."
The Jones-St. Preux matchup might not have the prominent appeal the original bout offered, but White and the UFC should be credited for making quick adjustments and putting an interim title on the line.
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