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UFC 214 hosted Jon Jones's last UFC match-up prior to his upcoming clash with Alexander Gustafsson at UFC 232. In the intervening period of 17 months, Jones was suspended due to testing positive for PEDs immediately after the event. That was a farce as this event marked his comeback from a year-long suspension for exactly the same offence.
Jones looked impressive in the main event as he ended Daniel Cormier's Light-Heavyweight title reign with a beautiful head kick and a devastating display of elbows and punches which finished off the champion.
In truth, Cormier got nowhere near Jones in this fight and was second best throughout. But it is difficult to laud Jones's performance too much, given what we know now. Despite Jones winning by Knockout on the night, the decision was later overturned to a No Contest and the title was returned to Cormier.
The co-headliner saw the Welterweight title on the line in a dull encounter which the fans hated. The contest went the full five rounds but despite Tyron Woodley's solid gameplan of defending takedowns and hitting the occasional jab, the live crowd booed the fight out of the building. This was as boring as it could get in a marquee fight.
Cris Cyborg won the vacant Featherweight Championship with a comfortable victory over Tonya Evinger. In a weight division she was unaccustomed to, Evinger was out of her depth against Cyborg. The fight was not entertaining and very mechanical from Cyborg's perspective but she kept herself busy with strikes and earned a deserved TKO win midway through the third round.
Robbie Lawler proved he still had something left in the tank with a victory over the "Cowboy" Donald Cerrone over three rounds. This was a highly entertaining striking affair with some super stiff shots by both men as they went toe to toe for the full 15 minutes. Lawler was the slightly more aggressive and edged a close 29-28 Unanimous Decision. A terrific encounter.
The main card opener saw Volkan Oezdemir destroy Jimi Manuwa in just 42 seconds with a typical massive left hand which knocked Manuwa into the middle of next week.
UFC 214 was one of the most successful events of 2017, pulling in a massive 860,000 orders.
