Jon Jones vs. Daniel Cormier 2 Announced for UFC 200: Full Match Card,

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After pulling Conor McGregor from the card, the UFC needed to do something drastic to ensure UFC 200 would live up to its status as one of the most highly anticipated pay-per-views of 2016. The company received a lifeline in the form of a rematch between Jon Jones and Daniel Cormier.

Jones, who won the first fight between the two, thinks he's capable of triumphing easily once again:

:With the main event now sorted out, the UFC has finalized the main card, although Nate Diaz, who was originally set to face McGregor, still doesn't have an opponent:

UFC 200 Main Card

Matchup	Division
Jon Jones vs. Daniel Cormier	Light Heavyweight
Nate Diaz vs. TBA	Welterweight
Jose Aldo vs. Frankie Edgar	Featherweight
Miesha Tate vs. Amanda Nunes	Women's Bantamweight
Cain Velasquez vs. Travis Browne	Heavyweight
Johny Hendricks vs. Kelvin Gastelum	Welterweight
Gegard Mousasi vs. Derek Brunson	Middleweight
Diego Sanchez vs. Joe Lauzon	Lightweight
Sage Northcutt vs. Enrique Marin	Lightweight
Jim Miller vs. Takanori Gomi	Lightweight
Cat Zingano vs. Julianna Pena	Women's Bantamweight

Source: UFC

McGregor was originally booked to headline UFC 200 with the Stockton, California, fighter. A disagreement about how much promotional work he'd do for the event led to his self-imposed exile.

McGregor is the UFC's biggest star—as shown by the massive reaction to and coverage of his standoff with the company. Nothing the company could do in response to his removal from the UFC 200 card could match having him in the main event. With that said, Jones vs.Cormier II comes close.

What will be the result of Jones/Cormier 2?

Jones win via KO/TKO

31.3%

Jones win via submission

6.9%

Jones win via decision

44.1%

Cormier win via KO/TKO

4.8%

Cormier win via submission

2.1%

Cormier win via decision

10.7%

Total votes: 5,672

The two were originally supposed to fight at UFC 197, but Cormier suffered an injury in training and pulled out of the fight. Jones instead fought OvinceSaint Preux, winning a unanimous decision. It was his return to the Octagon following an indefinite suspension issued in April 2015 as a result of his involvement in a hit-and-run in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

On Jan. 3, 2015, Jones and Cormierfought at UFC 182, with the former earning a unanimous-decision victory.Cormier was a game challenger early in the fight, but the gulf between the two grew the longer the bout went on. Although Jones was the clear winner, he and Cormier were close enough that the UFC could realistically argue a rematch was warranted.

In addition, some might question whether Jones remains at the fighting level he maintained during his previous run as light heavyweight champion. He looked rusty against Saint Preux, which, to a certain extent, was to be expected after his year-plus layoff:

"I wonder if this is the new Jon," Cormier said after the fight, per ESPN.com's Brett Okamoto. "That guy that fought tonight? That guy does not beat me."

That doubt about Jones provides just enough belief that Cormier can avenge his defeat.

From a commercial perspective, the UFC had little other recourse than to fast-track this fight. The company is starved for headline-grabbing clashes, especially with McGregor at a standoff and Ronda Rousey's Hollywood commitments taking up more and more of her time. The UFC couldn't afford to pass on Jones and Cormier, who seem to have a genuine dislike of each other:

In a March interview on Tiki and Tierney (via FoxSports.com's EliasCepeda), Jones explained how their hostility is strictly professional:

I definitely don't hate the guy. We don't like each other because we're both really elite in our sport. We're at the highest level you can get when it comes to being a UFC fighter. He's only lost to me. I've never lost to anyone. So I know that he's a capable guy [who could] possibly defeat me. He knows that I can defeat him because I've already done it. There's just a competitiveness there that only we can bring out of each other.

And even if a certain amount of their competitive rivalry is staged and played up for the cameras, they do a good enough job of creating an entertaining spectacle that it doesn't matter. Take as Exhibit A their post-interview reaction on a 2014 edition of SportsCenter