Who's the real UFC champ: Jon Jones or Daniel Cormier? Fellow fighters debate

Daniel Cormier has the belt once held by Jon Jones, but is he really – really – the champion?

Ahead of tonight’s UFC Fight Night 67 event in Brazil, we asked fighters from the FOX Sports 1-televised fight card to give us their thoughts.

Jones (21-1 MMA, 15-1 UFC), the longtime UFC light-heavyweight titleholder, was stripped of the belt earlier this year due to his alleged fault in a hit-and-run accident, which followed other legal and MMA-related snafus for the No. 1-ranked fighter in the USA TODAY Sports/MMAjunkie MMA light-heavyweight rankings.

With Jones facing an indefinite suspension and no concrete date for his return, No. 2-ranked Cormier (16-1 MMA, 5-1 UFC) picked up the vacant belt this past week at UFC 187 with a submission victory over Anthony Johnson (20-4 MMA, 10-5 UFC).

Cormier, of course, suffered a loss to Jones earlier this year, but the series of events that led to the ex-champ’s suspension and the vacant title are obviously not of his doing. So, should Cormier be considered the “real” champ, or does that honor still belong to Jones?

Check out the above video as fellow fighters share their thoughts.

For more on UFC Fight Night 67, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.