Jon Jones suffered a leg injury during training and has been forced to postpone his hotly anticipated light heavyweight title defense against Daniel Cormier that had been scheduled for UFC 178 on Sept. 27 at the MGM Grand Garden in Las Vegas.
The bout has tentatively been rescheduled for Jan. 3 as the main event of UFC 182, also at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
A UFC spokesperson said he did not know the nature of Jones' injury. Ariel Helwani of MMA Fighting quoted unnamed sources saying it is a torn meniscus in his left knee and a sprained ankle.
The news first broke Tuesday during the "America's Pregame" show on Fox Sports 1, where Cormier works as a UFC analyst. Cormier said he was told by UFC CEO Lorenzo Fertitta that he would keep his spot and that the company wouldn't leapfrog Alexander Gustafsson ahead of him.
Gustafsson originally was to face Jones on Sept. 27 until he was injured. But after a major brawl broke out between Jones and Cormier and generated major attention, there was little chance the UFC would not keep that bout together.
The UFC plans to move the flyweight title fight between champion Demetrious Johnson and challenger Chris Cariaso to replace Jones-Cormier atop UFC 178. The Johnson-Cariaso bout had been slated to be the co-main event of UFC 177 on Aug. 30 in Sacramento, Calif.
UFC president Dana White is on vacation and unreachable, as is Jones' manager Malki Kawa. Fertitta was in meetings when news of the injury broke and could not be reached.
Jones' trainer Greg Jackson did not immediately return a phone message.
The UFC noted in a press release that because of the change in main events, customers who have already purchased tickets for UFC 178 can request a refund. The deadline to do so is Aug. 22.
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