Jon Jones to face Ovince Saint Preux for the UFC interim light heavyweight title

The day after news broke that UFC light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier was injured and out of his UFC 197 title defense against rival and former champion Jon Jones, Double J now has a new opponent –Ovince Saint Preux — and a new goal: the UFC interim light heavyweight title on April 23rd.

The news was made official by Dana White during ESPN Sportscenter on Saturday night with White saying since Jones never lost the title, they felt it was right for the title to be on the line. Recently, UFC announced an interim featherweight title fight between Jose Aldo and Frankie Edgar for UFC 200, so the buzzword of 2016 is ‘interim”. 

Anthony Johnson and Rashad Evans were considered, but Johnson recently had dental surgery that made him unvailable. Jones said Saturday he doesn’t like short notice fights, but was up for anything at light heavyweight or heavyweight.

Jones is returning after more than a year off due to a slew of legal issues. He last fought and beat Cormier in January 2015 and the rematch was expected to do big PPV business. While this match is interesting, the show will no doubt take a hit with PPV buyers, especially with a lack of star power on the rest of the show.

OSP (19-7) is coming off a February decision win over Feijao Cavalcante, and has won three of his last four.