UFC

Daniel Cormier has a new opponent for UFC 200 and it's Anderson Silva ... TMZ Sports has confirmed.

After news broke Wednesday night that Jon Jones failed his drug test and was pulled from the July 9th event, Dana White and company snapped into action and booked Silva to step in and take on Cormier.

They will be fighting as light heavyweights. It will be a 3-round fight, but will NOT be a title fight.

Jon Jones is causing major headaches outside the UFC -- a Las Vegas hotspot is also scrambling to clean up a financial and marketing mess.

The final 3 candidates to replace Jon Jones at UFC 200 are Gegard Mousasi, Anderson Silva and Dan Henderson -- but there are problems with all 3, especially Henderson ... TMZ Sports has learned.

Our sources say Henderson is a front-runner to fight Michael Bisping for his middleweight title, and that bout is coming up soon -- so moving him to take on Daniel Cormier could screw a potential Bisping match.

Mousasi is already on UFC 200's undercard against Diego Santos. So, moving Gegard would create another hole for Saturday night.

As for Silva -- well, he's old.

We're told the Nevada Athletic Commission requires any fighter over 35 to undergo extensive medical testing and there might not be enough time to get it done for 41-year-old Silva. Plus, as we first reported ... he's also recovering from a recent surgery.

UFC brawler Sage Northcutt claims the Octagon ain't the only place he wants to become a superstar ... saying he wants to take his talent to the big screen ... and mix it up with Jean-Claude Van Damme.

Northcutt sat down with TMZ Sports and was asked what he likes to do when he's not caving in faces ... and that's when he told us he is a budding thespian.

"I've done commercials before ... maybe some action movies in the future."

The question then became who he'd wanna co-star with if he gets his shot on the big screen, and Sage didn't hesitate to answer ... saying he'd love to work with JCVD.

We're seeing buddy cop movie all over this one.

FYI -- Sage will step into the Octagon with Enrique Martin at UFC 200 this Saturday in Vegas.

Anderson Silva is boasting he's the one who was picked to replace Jon Jones in the UFC 200 fight against Daniel Cormier, but our UFC sources say no decision has been made.

We're told there are 3 contenders for the spot and Silva is indeed one of them. But UFC honchos are still meeting and they haven't picked anyone at the time of this post.

We're told there's a complication for Silva ... he just had gallbladder surgery and there are questions about his physical fight-worthiness for a match in just 48 hours.

BTW, further proof nothing is official, the picture Silva posted is just the UFC 200 meme generator .... which anyone can use.

Look who's also "in the running" ...

We'll let you know when the decision's really in ... stay tuned.

Conor McGregor's mouth is already in prime condition as proven by the shots he took at Nate Diaz during the UFC 202 news conference.

They came together in Las Vegas and Conor had plenty to say about his preparation for their August 20 rematch. In typical McGregor fashion he said he'd been sparring for a "tall, lanky, ugly Mexican southpaw.

Of course, both fighters commented about Jon Jones getting 86'd from this weekend's UFC 200. Nate kept it brief, and pretty shocking, saying ... "Everybody's on steroids."

Check out the video ... Conor was more sympathetic to Jones -- but also boasted he could step in for him and fight Daniel Cormier, if called upon.

Dana White says Jon Jones' latest public failure won't cost his ex-UFC 200 opponent Daniel Cormier any cash ... saying DC will fight on Saturday's card ... for the same money.

White called into Colin Cowherd's show 'The Herd' and opened up about his EXTREME disappointment at Jon Jones' positive test, while also answering one HUGE question for UFC fans.

"Cormier will fight this weekend."

More good news for DC? He doesn't have to take a haircut on his bottom line for the bout ... when asked if Daniel would make the same money for the Jonesless brawl, White simply said "yes."

Jon Jones wept openly while insisting he never knowingly cheated by taking performance-enhancing drugs, and vowed to return to the UFC.

Surprisingly, Jones opened his news conference by apologizing to Daniel Cormier for ruining their long-awaited rematch that was supposed to go down Saturday at UFC 200.

Jones says he "can't even pronounce" the drug the UFC says showed up in a blood test he took in June. He would not say the drug by name, but said he has no idea how it ended up in his system.

Jones says he will "go through the process" and try to find out what caused the dirty test. He admitted to taking a few supplements, but said he didn't think they were performance-enhancing.

At one point, he got so emotional, he walked out of the room. He returned several minutes later, but then couldn't hold back tears when he was asked if he'd spoken to Cormier.

Brock Lesnar's return to the Octagon is gonna be short ... like one fight short ... that's according to his UFC 200 opponent Mark Hunt who says he's gonna beat Brock's ass so bad ... he'll return to the WWE.

Mark was out in Vegas gearing up for the big man rumble on Saturday when we ran into him and had to ask what he's got in store for Lesnar.

What we got was good news for Vince McMahon and bad news for UFC fans ... 'cause Hunt told our guy he was going to use a real ass whipping to send Brock back to the world of fake fighting.

Jon Jones hit the self-destruct button ... again.

The UFC superstar has failed a drug test and has been removed from his fight against Daniel Cormier at UFC 200. Yes ... seriously.

The Nevada State Athletic Commission notified the UFC that Jones tested positive for a banned substance -- though UFC has not revealed what the substance was. The test went down in June.

Brief history lesson -- Jones failed a drug test last year ... and that time it was for cocaine. Following the test, Jones said he wasn't an addict but rather made a bad decision.

Dana White says the situation is “obviously super, super disappointing."

Daniel Cormier has already weighed in saying -- "More than anything, just really disappointed."

Story developing ...

Miesha Tate won her first fight at 8 YEARS OLD ... beating up a boy in a violent turf war ... and it changed her life forever!!

The UFC superstar sat down with TMZ's Charlie Cotton to promote UFC 200 on July 9th -- when she regaled us about the first time she opened up a can of whoopass.

"The boy was a year older than me," Miesha said.

Jon Jones says he was "in the prime of my partying" when he beat Daniel Cormier last year -- and now that he's sober, JJ says he's going to beat his ass again.

Jay Glazer ain't just the ultimate NFL insider, he's also an MMA aficionado -- and he tells TMZ Sports there's only ONE WAY Brock Lesnar beats Mark Hunt at UFC 200.

By the way, Glazer was hangin' out with NFL superstar Jadeveon Clowney in Bev Hills Tuesday -- turns out, he's doing some MMA training with the Houston Texan at his Unbreakable Performance gym in L.A.

"He's working his butt off out here."

As for Brock, we'll see if he takes Jay's advice when he steps into the Octagon on July 9th.

Matt Hardy doesn't sound too confident about CM Punk's UFC debut ...

Hardy spent years in the squared circle with Punk -- and got to know the guy pretty well before Punk left pro wrestling to become an MMA fighter.

Now, with Punk set to make his debut at UFC 203 later this year, we asked Hardy for his take ... and it's less than optimistic.

By the way, Hardy has some fightin' of his own to do when he squares off with his brother, Jeff, Tuesday night at TNA's "Hardy vs. Hardy: The Final Deletion."

"If you have a belt, you should have to defend it" ... so says Frankie Edgar who says it's "whack" that Conor McGregor is fighting outside his weight class before defending the featherweight title.

Edgar is currently UFC's top ranked featherweight contender and BADLY wants to beat the title out of the hands of the Irish superstar.

Problem is, Conor's taking his SECOND fight in another weight class (to rematch with Nate Diaz) ... and it's clearly bothering Edgar.

Jon Jones claims there's one small issue stopping him from joining Floyd Mayweather's Money Team ... Floyd won't call him back ... saying the two men haven't spoken since Floyd made the offer.

Floyd told us the UFC superstar was a perfect candidate for Money Team membership when we got him at his daughter's crazy b-day party ... so when we got Jon out we had to ask about the status of his crewship.

Check out the clip -- seems like there's a little miscommunication going on, 'cause Jon says he'd love to join up with Floyd ... but hasn't had contact with him since he was invited to join.

Weird, you'd think he'd want to brand JJ with TMT gear before he gets in the Octagon at UFC 200 on July 9th.