Daniel Cormier Vacates UFC Light Heavyweight Title

In a bizarre conclusion to a chaotic week for the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) their light heavyweight title is all of a sudden vacant. On Friday, reigning titleholder Daniel Cormier relinquished the light heavyweight belt. Cormier remains the UFC heavyweight champion. Even by the standards of an organization that has always made things up as they went along the past week has made the UFC look downright ridiculous. Cormier’s decision to vacate his championship just adds fuel to the grease fire.

When the week began, the UFC announced that they were moving Saturday’s UFC 232 card from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas to The Forum in Inglewood, California. The event will be headlined by Jon Jones’ return to fighting after an absence of more than a year. The change was a last minute maneuver necessary to allow Jones to fight Alexander Gustafsson. In a rare show of cooperation and/or collusion, the Nevada Athletic Commission allowed Jones to withdraw his application for licensing in the Silver State. The card was moved to Los Angeles to allow him to compete under an active California license. This all took place because the USADA informed the UFC that Jones’ most recent drug test was ‘atypical’ though not considered ‘failed’.

It was a clever tactical move by the UFC to prevent the cancellation of the main event (and most likely the entire card) but the remaining fighters competing at UFC 232 aren’t particularly happy with the venue change. There’s the logistical demands of getting fighters, trainers, cornermen and families from Las Vegas to Los Angeles. It also hurts the bottom line of the undercard fighters who are already paid considerably less than Jones. They’ve got additional expenses due to the relocation and they take another hit from the state government in the form of California’s state income tax. Nevada has no state income tax. Dana White has already indicated that the promotion will not do anything to subsidize the tax burden of the undercard competitors.

So where does Cormier play into all of this? A little backstory is necessary at this point. Cormier lost the UFC light heavyweight belt to Jones in July 2017. After the fight Jones failed a drug test (he tested positive for oral turinabol). The result of the bout was changed to a ‘No Contest’ by the California State Athletic Commission and the belt was returned to Cormier. This means that Cormier is still the champion, right? Wrong—for reasons that haven’t been clearly rationalized by the UFC the winner Saturday’s Jones vs. Gustafsson fight will be the promotion’s new light heavyweight champion. The plan initially was to strip Cormier of the title and award it to either the guy he beat for the belt (Gustafsson) or the guy who was suspended for more than a year (Jones).

To his credit, Cormier has no interest in riding shotgun in Dana White’s clown car. He decided to give up the title before he was stripped of the belt for no good reason whatsoever. Not surprisingly, the UFC’s official website and their other media outlets are trying to pretend the whole thing didn’t happen. They’re getting help from their supplicants and business partners in the media who are reporting the story without judgment. Business partner ESPN at least reported the story (without passing judgment on how silly the UFC has looked this week) and offered an ‘exclusive’ statement from Cormier:

“Today I am going to relinquish the UFC light heavyweight title. I am not going to be stripped of the belt that I’ve defended with my all for three and a half years. Being stripped of a title suggests you’ve done something wrong, and I haven’t.”

“I’d rather walk away this way, with my head held high as it always has been, than have the history books say I was stripped. I’ve defended this title this year. I was approached with the idea of fighting at heavyweight, so I took it. I fought three times in 2018. No champion has been more active than me. I am the fighter of the year. My story and my legacy will not include me being stripped of a title. They can have it.”

If you’re looking to bet on UFC 232 the odds on the main event haven’t moved much this week. The current price has Jones installed as a -280 favorite with takeback on Gustafsson at +240. The Over/Under is set at 4.5 rounds.