Cormier injury forces him out of rematch with Rumble

Daniel Cormier won the light heavyweight belt with a third-round submission win over Rumble Johnson at UFC 187, but the UFC 206 rematch has been scrapped due to an injury to Cormier.

Daniel Cormier won the light heavyweight belt with a third-round submission win over Rumble Johnson at UFC 187, but the UFC 206 rematch has been scrapped due to an injury to Cormier.

Published on Friday, 11/25/16, at 1:37 p.m. Eastern.

The UFC 206 headliner has been scrapped due to an injury to light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier. According to MMAFighting.com, the hope is to keep Anthony ‘Rumble’ Johnson on the card.

Johnson was scheduled to fight Jon ‘Bones’ Jones at UFC 187 before the former champ was arrested on hit-and-run charges in 2015. Instead, he and Cormier fought for the vacant 205-pound strap once Jones was stripped of it.

Johnson nearly finished Cormier in the opening minute of the UFC 187 headliner, but Cormier somehow recovered from a violent onslaught that had Rumble in charge and ahead at the end of Round 1.

Everything changed midway through the second round when Cormier scored a takedown. He worked ground and pound for the rest of the stanza and nearly finished the fight. It didn’t take ‘DC’ long to earn the submission victory and become the champ in the third round.

Since then, Cormier has defended his belt once with a split-decision win over Alexander Gustafsson at UFC 192. He was scheduled to face Jones in the UFC 200 headliner before Jones was forced out when he was flagged by USADA for an illegal substance.

Former middleweight kingpin Anderson ‘The Spider’ Silva took a fight with Cormier on just two days of notice in a non-title bout. Cormier wrestled his way to a unanimous-decision victory in a three-round scrap.

There’s no word out on the details of Cormier’s injury as of early Friday afternoon.

Judging by the tweets below, it doesn’t seem that it’s an injury of major significance. Jones is in the midst of a one-year suspension and can’t fight until late July.

The current co-main event is a featherweight showdown between Max Holloway and Anthony ‘Showtime’ Pettis.

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