The rematch. Finally.
The UFC has booked Jon Jones versus Daniel Cormier for the light heavyweight championship on five separate occasions. Yet, they've only fought once.
This has been a snakebitten matchup for the UFC, with multiple dates falling through for various reasons -- but at UFC 214 inside Anaheim's Honda Center, we'll finally see it for the second time.
Jones has fought once in the last two years, due to a failed drug test and legal issues. Cormier is the reigning champion, but 0-1 in his rivalry with Jones.
This UFC 214 event features two additional title fights. Cris "Cyborg" Justino meets Tonya Evinger for the vacant featherweight title and Tyron Woodley looks to defend his welterweight strap over Demian Maia.
Here's everything you need to know about UFC 214, courtesy of ESPN's Cheat Sheets.
Odds: Justino -1375; Evinger +900
At this point in Justino's 12-year professional mixed martial arts career, it's no secret who she is or what she brings to the table.
Although her outsized sense of pride has undeniably led to trouble, it has also led her to the threshold of her biggest fight yet: a would-be UFC champion, a dozen years into her career, fighting for the title she has always wanted.
A look at Cristiane 'Cyborg' Justino's preparation for UFC 214.
Everything you need to know about UFC 214, which takes place Saturday, July 29, in Anaheim, headlined by a light heavyweight championship fight between Jon Jones and Daniel Cormier.
2 Related
Justino is the most dominant female featherweight of all time. Undefeated since November 2005, with nine first-round knockouts. She's a human highlight reel, and the sole reason the UFC opened a 145-pound weight class for females this year.
She's also very, very difficult to find an opponent for.
"All my career, I've had problems finding opponents," Justino told ESPN. "Even when I was starting my career in Brazil, when I was 20 years old, it was hard. My focus has always had to be just train, and know the promoter would find me a fight."
As much cause as there is for celebration that the UFC abandoned its unreasonable demands that Justino cut to 135 pounds this year, her future with the promotion remains uncertain. The UFC has yet to truly throw its full support behind the 145-pound division, which is unquestionably thin in talent.
The rollout of the new weight class has been a complete disaster. Amsterdam's Germaine de Randamie won the inaugural title by defeating Holly Holm in February. De Randamie refused to face Justino, however, because Justino tested positive for a steroid in 2011. The UFC was ultimately forced to strip de Randamie of the belt. Both she and Holm have returned to bantamweight.
"Before she fought for the belt, she knew she had a fight coming with me," said Justino, on de Randamie. "She made excuses, talking about a hurt hand and calling me a cheater. It was embarrassing. You gave up your belt because you're scared? I thought it was embarrassing for all the fighters."
It was arguably embarrassing for the UFC as well, and highlights the very real difficulty of booking Justino, who now fights out of California, an opponent.
What effect that will have on her and this division in the UFC, might take even longer than Saturday to find out.
"I think it's getting better," Justino said on her relationship with the UFC. "We have to start working together, for both sides to be happy. I'll make them happy on Saturday in the Octagon, for sure."
When Evinger was young, she'd trade away toys in exchange for fistfights.
Evinger, 36, has been in constant search of a fight, from a very young age. She grew up with two younger brothers, who made for natural dance partners -- but it usually took some coaxing to get them to agree.
"I used to bribe my brothers with toys. 'Hey, I'll give you my remote control if you box me for 10 minutes,'" Evinger said. "I'd end up doing something stupid, hitting them too hard and hurting them, and I'd be like, 'Damn it, I didn't even get to go for a minute.'
"I just loved it. It started young, young, young. I used to have to beat up the neighbor kids because they'd beat up my brothers and my dad would threaten me. I would have to go knock on their door, 'Hey, can you come out and play,' and end up whooping their ass. It's just one of those things, that's what you do when you grow up in the country. You fight."
Those early fights never stopped for Evinger. She wrestled in high school and college, and began fighting professionally in 2006. She's fought for a long list of promotions and is the current Invicta bantamweight champion.
She's eyed a roster spot in the UFC for years, but was denied until this fight was announced last month. Evinger says she reached a point where she knew her ticket to the UFC would likely be accepting a Justino bout.
"I don't think it's anything that's unknown," said Evinger, on Justino's destructive first-round rsum. "I've seen her fight a bunch of times and she's probably seen me fight a bunch of times. I know she's going to come out swinging.
"I'm a really smart fighter and I think I'm going to keep from getting the s--- beat out of me. I don't go in there to get the s--- beat out of me, I go in to win fights. I'm prepared for wherever it goes."
If there was ever a time Justino may have been vulnerable, perhaps it was her last two fights. The strain on her body to make 140 pounds, who knows how that would have affected her late in a fight?
That's no longer an issue, though. And at 145 pounds, Justino holds sizable advantages over any opponent she'll face. Case in point: Evinger -- who fights at 135 pounds and will return to doing so, if she's unsuccessful this weekend.
When most people think of Justino, they probably think of the Berserker Cyborg flurry. Those outbursts she lays on opponents near the end of the fight, which can look more physically overwhelming than technically beautiful. But the scary reality is that Justino has been a very efficient striker as of late, landing 66 percent of her strikes in two UFC fights. That's a credit to her and veteran striking coach Jason Parillo.
Evinger is a very good bantamweight, who probably deserved a shot in the UFC well before now. But on paper, she doesn't have many clear paths to victory here. Her skill set is built over a wrestling base, which she honed all the way through a collegiate wrestling career. But as the undersized, less explosive athlete in this matchup, envisioning her taking Justino down and beating her up on the floor requires some imagination.
It's difficult to break this down without seemingly snubbing your nose at Evinger's skills. She's very good from the clinch. She manipulates opponents well from there, and frequently scores with trips. She welcomes a fight and her experience is obvious when it comes to winning key moments, directing traffic as to where the bout goes, plus a calm demeanor. She also has a long reach, which has benefited her at times at 135.
But as successful as Evinger is in the clinch, Justino is an absolute nightmare there. Her physical strength dictates everything that happens at that range, and she's great at peeling off, taking a step back and unloading punches that, as we all know, do serious damage. Her pocket presence is arguably the best in female MMA. Everything Evinger does well, Justino is well suited to counter.
And on top of all that, she has a great chin, which she proved in a five-round Muay Thai bout in 2014, when her MMA career was temporarily stalled.
Evinger is a fighter's fighter, meaning she's good in the trenches and hard to put away. But if she is to survive Justino's onslaught and give us a peek at later rounds, those are some deep trenches she'll have to navigate.
Prediction: Justino, first-round TKO
Read more from the original source:
UFC 214 Cheat Sheet: Cris Cyborg vs. Tonya Evinger - ESPN (blog)
