Controversy

Jones vs. Cormier 2: The UFC 214 Knockout That Became a No Contest

A left head kick ended the rematch in the third round. Weeks later a positive test for a Turinabol metabolite took the win off the record and gave Cormier his title back.

By Jashan Oct 15, 2026 · 8 min read

At a glance

1Official resultNo contest - originally Jones by KO/TKO at 3:01 of round 3
2The finishA left head kick, then punches on the ground; referee John McCarthy
3The cards after two rounds19-19, 19-19 and 20-18 for Jones
4Why it was overturnedA Turinabol metabolite in Jones's in-competition sample of July 28, 2017; overturned September 13, 2017
5The statsSignificant strikes 95-58 to Jones, 31-5 in the third round; one knockdown
6Our card19-19 after two rounds; the no contest is the right result

What was at stake

The first fight settled nothing for long. Jon Jones beat Daniel Cormier 49-46 on all three cards at UFC 182 on January 3, 2015, the first loss of Cormier's career. Four months later the UFC stripped Jones of the light heavyweight title and suspended him after his arrest over a hit-and-run, and on May 23, 2015 Cormier won the vacant belt by submitting Anthony Johnson at 2:39 of the third round at UFC 187.

The rematch was meant to happen at UFC 200 in July 2016. Three days before it, Jones was pulled from the card after USADA told him of a potential violation; in November 2016 an arbitration panel gave him a one-year ban for clomiphene and letrozole. He had won an interim title against Ovince Saint Preux at UFC 197 in April 2016, but he had not fought for 15 months when the rematch finally came at UFC 214 on July 29, 2017. Cormier was the champion; Jones was still the betting favourite, between -250 and -280 depending on the book, with Cormier at +200 to +230.

The official scorecards

The fight ended in the third round, so it never went to the judges. Their sheets after two rounds were published later: MMAmania ran a photo of the official cards first posted by MMA Junkie, and Bloody Elbow reported the same scores. Scores are written Jones first.

Card	After R1 and R2	Leader
Judge 1	19-19	Even
Judge 2	19-19	Even
Judge 3	20-18	Jones

Referee: John McCarthy. The two 19-19 cards were not broken down by round in the reports we could check, and the judges' names come from a single outlet, so we leave them out. A 20-18 card means that judge gave Jones both rounds.

So the fight was close when it ended. Two judges had it level, and the third had Jones two rounds up. Cormier was not losing badly on the cards when the kick landed; he was in a fight he could still win.

Round by round

Round 1 - even on the numbers

The official count gives Jones a narrow edge in significant strikes, 34-31, almost all of it kicks and body work: he landed 13 to the body and 13 to the legs, against 7 and 11 for Cormier. Cormier did more damage where it shows, to the head, 13-8, and won the clinch exchanges 5-3. Each man tried one takedown and missed.

Round 2 - Jones out-lands, Cormier out-heads

The same fight, a little wider. Jones landed 30 significant strikes from 47 thrown, 63%, to Cormier's 22 from 54. Again Cormier led to the head, 14-7, and again Jones won everywhere else: 11-3 to the body and 12-5 to the legs. Both men tried two takedowns and neither finished one. After two rounds, two judges had one round each and the third had Jones up 20-18.

Round 3 - the kick

Cormier ducked forward and, in CBS Sports' description, "walked right into a left high kick". The kick wobbled him, Rolling Stone and Cageside Press both report, and Jones followed him to the fence with more strikes. Cormier went down and Jones finished with punches on the ground until McCarthy stopped it at 3:01. The official numbers show how one-sided the round became: 31 significant strikes to 5, 18-2 to the head, one knockdown, and 15 of 17 strikes on the ground for Jones.

Jones said afterwards that the kick was planned. "We know that he likes to dip his head to the left and we were banking on him instinctually doing that sooner or later," he said, as CBS Sports reported. Cormier, interviewed in the cage, said: "I don't know man, I thought the fight was going well. I don't even know what happened."

What the numbers say

The official statistics, round by round (Jones first):

Round	Sig. strikes	Head	Body	Legs	KD	Takedowns	Control
R1	34 – 31	8 – 13	13 – 7	13 – 11	0 – 0	0/1 – 0/1	0:02 – 0:00
R2	30 – 22	7 – 14	11 – 3	12 – 5	0 – 0	0/2 – 0/2	0:00 – 0:00
R3	31 – 5	18 – 2	8 – 2	5 – 1	1 – 0	0/0 – 0/0	0:14 – 0:00
Total	95 – 58	33 – 29	32 – 12	30 – 17	1 – 0	0/3 – 0/3	0:16 – 0:00

The totals, 95 significant strikes to 58, are lopsided only because of the third round. Through two rounds Jones led 64-53, and the split explains the cards: Cormier landed 27 strikes to the head against 15 for Jones, while Jones landed 24 to the body against 10 and 25 to the legs against 16. Weigh head strikes most and Cormier has a case for a round; count everything and Jones led both.

Jones was also far more accurate, landing 58% of his significant strikes to Cormier's 41%. Cormier threw 99 significant strikes at the head and landed 29 of them. The wrestling never happened at all: neither man completed a takedown in three attempts, and the only control time, 16 seconds, was Jones's, almost all of it at the end.

What the numbers cannot tell you is what any of it was worth once the test came back. The figures above describe the fight as it happened in the cage; the record no longer counts it as a win for anyone.

How we scored it

Round	MMA.SOCIAL	Why
R1	10-9 Cormier	The cleaner shots to the head, 13-8, and more landed in the clinch, 5-3; Jones's 34-31 lead was mostly kicks to the body and legs.
R2	10-9 Jones	30-22 in significant strikes at 63% accuracy, with clear leads to the body and legs; Cormier's 14-7 to the head came from 41 attempts.
R3	Jones by KO/TKO	The head kick and the punches that followed, at 3:01.
Result	No contest	Overturned after Jones's positive test.

Our card was 19-19 after two rounds, the same as two of the three judges. Round 1 is a real coin flip: Jones landed more, Cormier landed the shots that mattered more. Round 2 was more clearly Jones's.

The finish needs no scoring. The harder question is whether the no contest is right, and we think it is. The rule is simple and applies to everyone: a fighter is responsible for what is in his sample, and a positive in-competition test means the win does not stand. The independent arbitrator in USADA's case later found that Jones had not been cheating on purpose, which matters for his punishment, but not for the result. Nobody can say how the fight goes without the substance in his system, and that uncertainty is exactly why the record says no contest rather than a win for either man.

What happened next

After the fight Jones thanked Cormier for being "my biggest rival and motivator" and, in the cage, called out Brock Lesnar. Cormier, in tears in his interview, later apologised on Instagram to McCarthy, whom he had pushed during the announcement.

On August 22, 2017 the UFC said USADA had informed Jones of a potential violation from the sample taken after the weigh-in on July 28. Cormier said, as LowKick MMA and Fightful reported: "In my mind, on July 29, I competed and I lost. I thought Jon Jones was the better man that day. I don't know what to think anymore." On September 12 the B sample confirmed a long-term metabolite of Turinabol, and on September 13 the athletic commission overturned the result to a no contest. The UFC reinstated Cormier as light heavyweight champion the same day. "You don't cheat the sport, you don't cheat the fans, you don't cheat me," Cormier said, as CBS Sports reported. In February 2018 the commission revoked Jones's licence and fined him $205,000.

USADA's case took longer. On September 19, 2018 USADA announced that an independent arbitrator had given Jones a 15-month suspension, backdated to July 28, 2017, so he was eligible again on October 28, 2018; as a second offender he had faced up to four years. USADA's chief executive, Travis Tygart, said the arbitrator "found that Jon Jones was not intentionally cheating in this case".

Cormier, meanwhile, defended the light heavyweight title against Volkan Oezdemir at UFC 220 in January 2018, stopping him in the second round, and then moved up and knocked out Stipe Miocic at 4:33 of the first round at UFC 226 on July 7, 2018 to become heavyweight champion as well - only the second fighter, after Conor McGregor, to hold two UFC titles at once. On December 28, 2018, the day before Jones's return, he gave up the light heavyweight belt: "My story and my legacy will not include me being stripped of a title. They can have it." Jones won the vacant title the next night by stopping Alexander Gustafsson at 2:02 of the third round at UFC 232.

The third fight never happened. Cormier retired after his third fight with Miocic, a unanimous-decision loss at UFC 252 on August 15, 2020, and entered the UFC Hall of Fame in 2022. Jones moved to heavyweight and won that title in 2023; in June 2025 Dana White announced his retirement: "Jon Jones is officially retired. Tom Aspinall is the heavyweight champion of the UFC."

The verdict

Jones vs. Cormier 2 was a close fight for two rounds and a clean knockout in the third, and it counts for nothing. The cards had it level or Jones ahead when the kick landed; on our card it was 19-19. Jones's positive test took the win away, and under the rules that is the correct result: the official record is a no contest, and Cormier, who lost in the cage, left the year still the champion. Their rivalry ends at one win for Jones and one fight that does not count.

Full fight stats: Jones vs. Cormier 2. The rest of the night: UFC 214. More: the most title fights and the fighters with the most disputed losses.

Sources

Questions

Who won Jones vs. Cormier 2?

Officially, nobody. Jon Jones knocked out Daniel Cormier at 3:01 of the third round at UFC 214 on July 29, 2017, but the result was changed to a no contest on September 13, 2017 after Jones tested positive for a Turinabol metabolite. Cormier was reinstated as light heavyweight champion.

Why was Jones vs. Cormier 2 overturned?

Jones's in-competition urine sample, taken after the weigh-in on July 28, 2017, tested positive for a long-term metabolite of Turinabol, an anabolic steroid. The B sample confirmed it on September 12, and the athletic commission overturned the result to a no contest the next day.

What were the Jones vs. Cormier 2 scorecards?

The fight ended in the third round, so it was never scored in full. After two rounds the official cards were 19-19, 19-19 and 20-18 for Jones.

How long was Jon Jones suspended after UFC 214?

An independent arbitrator gave Jones a 15-month USADA suspension in September 2018, backdated to July 28, 2017, so he could fight again from October 28, 2018. The arbitrator found he had not been intentionally cheating. The athletic commission also revoked his licence and fined him $205,000.

Did Jones and Cormier ever fight a third time?

No. Cormier retired after losing to Stipe Miocic at UFC 252 in August 2020, and Jones retired in June 2025. Their record stands at one win for Jones, at UFC 182, and one no contest.

Who won the first Jones vs. Cormier fight?

Jon Jones, by unanimous decision, 49-46 on all three cards, at UFC 182 on January 3, 2015. It was the first loss of Daniel Cormier's career.