Jon Jones picks 'more complete' Daniel Cormier to best Anthony Johnson in UFC 206 title rematch

Jon Jones expects staunch rival and reigning champion Daniel Cormier to hang on to the UFC light heavyweight title in December’s UFC 206 headliner with Anthony Johnson.

Cormier (17-1 MMA, 8-1 UFC), who puts the 205-pound title up for grabs against Johnson (22-5 MMA, 13-5 UFC) in the Dec. 10 pay-per-view headliner at Air Canada Centre in Toronto, has already defeated “Rumble” once before. Jones (22-1 MMA, 16-1 UFC) thinks he can do it again.

“DC” beat Johnson by third-round submission at UFC 187 in May 2015 to capture the then-vacant title. The rematch came together for UFC 206 less than 19 months later, but current interim titleholder Jones said he doesn’t foresee a different result (via Twitter).

Jones, No. 1 in the USA TODAY Sports/MMAjunkie MMA light-heavyweight rankings (and No. 2 pound-for-pound), sharing his prediction for the showdown between No. 2 Cormier and No. 3 Johnson is one thing. Revealing what he wants to happen in the bout is a different subject entirely, though.

“Bones” might have a long and rocky history with Cormier (check out the above video), whom he beat by unanimous decision at UFC 182 in January 2015. H was then supposed to rematch Cormier at UFC 197 in April and UFC 200 in July, respectively, before the fights fell apart for various reasons. However, if he had his choice, he’d rather see Johnson emerge victorious so he could have a fresh opponent for an eventual title unification bout (via Twitter):

Before Jones, 29, can put too much focus on the UFC 206 main event, he must first deal with his own issues. He was flagged for having two banned substances in his system prior to the UFC 200 fight with Cormier and was pulled from the card at the last minute. Jones is facing a one-year suspension from the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), but he’ll seek a lesser punishment or a complete dismissal of his case through an arbitration hearing set for Monday.

That still leaves him to face the Nevada State Athletic Commission on Nov. 10, though, and it’s not clear how the sanctioning body, which was slated to oversee his scheduled UFC 200 rematch with Cormier, will move forward.

When the time does eventually arrive for Jones to get back in the octagon, he expects Cormier to be the one standing across from him. However, as Johnson recently told MMAjunkie, he envisions his rematch with “DC” playing out very differently from the first clash.

“I look forward to seeing what Daniel can do,” Johnson said. “I look forward to seeing what I can do against Daniel. It’ll be very interesting. We’ll see what happens. Daniel’s smart. If he stays out of the way of my fists and my feet, he might live.”

For more on UFC 206, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.