Jon Jones’ April 26 hit-and-run accident left the main event of UFC 187 in doubt, but only briefly. Daniel Cormier stepped up immediately, offering himself to Ultimate Fighting Championship chief Dana White as a replacement to fight Anthony “Rumble” Johnson for UFC’s light heavyweight championship. It’s a historical first for a UFC champion to be stripped of a title for disciplinary reasons, but a break for two-time Olympic champion wrestler Cormier.

“It’s a tough fight,” Cormier said in an April 28 interview with Fox Sports’ UFC Tonight. “Rumble Johnson’s a fantastic fighter. He has tremendous power and he’s got a confidence about himself right now.” But Cormier also noted that Johnson lost by submission to both Vitor Belfort and Josh Koscheck, implying that he had to find a similar route to victory over Johnson.

Johnson earned his title shot by using lightning-fast strikes to dispense with Alexander Gustafsson with in the first round of their Jan. 24 bout (pictured). The winner of Johnson vs. Cormier might just face Jones as his next opponent if Jones manages to avoid jail time and gets off indefinite suspension, but Johnson has taken the higher road on social media and says he’s just happy to have an opponent to focus on in training. The undercard, meanwhile, includes a middleweight title fight between champion Chris Weidman and challenger Belfort, with Travis Browne facing Andrei Arlovski in a clash of heavyweights.