Jon Jones will fight at UFC 197—even though Daniel Cormier withdrew with an injury, per Brett Okamoto of ESPN.com.
Jeremy Botter of FloSports reported Ovince Saint Preux will be Jones' UFC 197 opponent on April 23 in Las Vegas. The UFC confirmed the announcement shortly thereafter.
UFC President Dana White indicated the fight will be for the interim light heavyweight title, per MMAFighting.com.
Jones' publicist previously tweeted Anthony "Rumble" Johnson would replace Cormier but quickly deleted the message, per Damon Martin of Fox Sports.
Ariel Helwani of MMAFighting.com followed up by saying the matchup was highly unlikely but Preux and Rashad Evans would be open to a potential bout with Jones:
Jones (21-1) has never fought Saint Preux (19-7), which may make for an interesting go.
Evans would have made sense as an opponent, though he’s slated to fight April 16 against Glover Teixeira.
Yet Jones posted a video on Instagram Saturday urging the UFC to find a last-minute replacement:
The UFC suspended Jones for six months and stripped him of his light heavyweight title following a hit-and-run incident in New Mexico. It reinstated him last October, but during his hiatus, Cormier claimed the vacant title.
It seemed to be a perfect storm brewing, as Jones just this week avoided jail for another traffic run-in that landed him five citations for a slew of offenses including drag racing, per Steven Marrocco of MMAJunkie.com.
Jones admitted in his Instagram post that he’s wary of taking on opponents under such circumstances. "Y'all know I'm not into taking last-minute fights," he said. "It's not the way me and my trainers do things." But given the tumultuous year he’s had, he clearly wants to give the fans a show.
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