When is an interim title fight not an interim title fight? When it involves Jon Jones

I can think of at least one lucky break for the UFC in this weekend’s UFC 197 shakeup: At least the organization didn’t have to announce the change one day earlier, on April Fool’s Day.

If it had, no one would have been willing to accept it as anything but a tired, obvious joke.

I mean, come on. Jon Jones vs. Ovince Saint Preux for the interim UFC light heavyweight title? It sounds about as believable as the time the UFC announced plans to build that stadium in Russia.

But no, this news broke on April 2, a day when openly lying is no longer considered the height of humor by a bunch of people who aren’t funny. And so we had to face the awful truth. Daniel Cormier is injured. UFC 197 was in danger of losing the one thing that made it feel truly pay-per-view worthy, and so it was up to the UFC to find a replacement and up to Jones to agree to it.

Turns out the latter hurdle was the easiest to clear. With Cormier out, Jones let it be known that he’d fight whoever the UFC could get, and at whatever weight it wanted. What the UFC wanted, it seemed, was a fight that would allow it to yank another replica belt out of the utility closest at Zuffa headquarters.

With that decision made, the hunt was on for a suitable 205-pounder. Here, let UFC President Dana White explain how “OSP” got the nod.

“Obviously, the No. 1 choice would be Anthony Johnson, who is the No. 2-ranked guy in the world and a fight that everybody wants to see,” White said on ESPN’s “SportsCenter” on Saturday. “But Anthony Johnson just had surgery on his mouth and can’t even put a mouthpiece in for at least three weeks. So, as you go down the line, other guys have fights set up. …Rashad Evans is fighting the week after against Glover Teixeira. So he already has a fight. Plus Rashad Evans is ranked No. 7; Ovince Saint Preux is ranked No. 6. So, No. 1 vs. No. 6 makes the most sense.”

Of course, what he means is that No. 1 vs. No. 6 makes the most sense only after you’ve ruled out Nos. 2 through 5. That is to say, it’s as close to making sense as the UFC can get, given the present circumstances, and so that’ll have to do.

Where it gets weird is with the inclusion of another one of those shiny gold belts. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but sometimes the UFC tends to get a little interim title-happy.

Jose Aldo and Frankie Edgar will be fighting for one at UFC 200, even though the champ with the actual title will also compete on the same card, albeit in another weight class. And that champ, the inimitable Conor McGregor, won an interim title of his own when Aldo pulled out of their first scheduled bout this past July.

The current UFC champion at heavyweight, Fabricio Werdum, also followed the path from the interim title to the real thing. Then there are others, like welterweight Carlos Condit and retired heavyweight Shane Carwin, who never managed to gain the full glory of the actual title.

Usually the interim title is a gimmick, a fake. It is, at best, a placeholder. It serves as a physical reminder that the fighter who holds it has dibs on the champion, whenever he should return. Other than that? It looks cool in pictures, I suppose.

But this is not your usual situation. It rarely is, when Jones is involved. He’s not the UFC light heavyweight champion right now, and yet, come on, he basically is. He never lost his title in the cage. He lost it out on the streets of Albuquerque, N.M.

And the belt that Cormier won when he submitted Johnson this past May? That might as well have been the interim title, considering the circumstances he won it under.

Cormier had his shot at the real title when he faced Jones at UFC 182 in January 2015, and he lost a clear, unambiguous decision. Then Jones went out and crashed his car into a pregnant woman, and, well, you know the rest.

So now that Jones is back in action, is he not still, at least in our minds, the light heavyweight champion? And if by some miracle Saint Preux should beat him, wouldn’t that make him the man who beat the man? Couldn’t this be, maybe for the first time in UFC history, an instance where the interim title is more legitimate than the real one?

That, too, is a lucky break for the UFC. Because the more belts you pull out of the closet, the less important they become. I still wouldn’t expect Jones’ return against Saint-Preux, who is good while remaining far from great, to shape up as anything resembling a real test. For now, maybe it’s better to think of it as a coronation.

The outcome may not be in much doubt, but the image at the end – Jones with his arms held high in triumph, a mass of leather and metal twinkling around his waist – should at least be a familiar one.

For more on UFC 197, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.