Daniel Cormier's first title defense was very nearly a disaster. After a strong start, the former Olympian faltered, abandoning his wrestling game in favor of slugging it out with the Swedish striker Alexander Gustafsson for four of the five rounds.
That strategy proved to be a mistake.
Gustafsson left his mark, both on Cormier's face and on at least one of the judges, falling just short of taking the championship across the Atlantic. It was clearly a close fight—but most of the media and two of three judges scored in favor of the champion.
As fans, we tend to view a fight in its totality. When the final bell rings you tend to have a feeling about who won and who lost. But cageside, fights are scored in five-minute increments. Dominating a round and eking it out, while leaving very different impressions with fans, are scored equally.
We'll score the fight the same way judges do, looking at each round with the power of hindsight to see what really happened. When a fight is this close, it's important to go back over it minute-by-minute, in painstaking detail, to answer the question everyone ponders after a mega-fight. Did the right man leave the cage with the UFC championship belt?
Round 1
While announcer Joe Rogan hyped Gustafsson's length and serious reach advantage, Cormier goes about the business of mitigating that advantage with inside leg kicks. He might be short and have short arms too, but using his feet gave him the ability to reach out and touch Gustafsson.
At the 4:21 mark, Cormier walked through a right hand to take his first wrestling shot of the night. He pushed Gustafsson into the cage with a single leg and used a high crotch to lift his opponent high into the air and slam him hard on the mat as the crowd roared.
"That is why wrestling is the most important aspect of MMA," Rogan said. "If you can do that to a game, it changes the whole ballgame."
Cormier floated over and secured solid control. Gustafsson eventually managed full guard and at the 3:06 mark even appeared to be about to get back to his feet—had his opponent been anyone but Daniel Cormier he very well might have.
Gustafsson did a brilliant job of defending himself on the ground, controlling Cormier's head and wrists. The champion was able to land a number of short shots but couldn't ever wind up and land anything of real significance.
His best work, instead, showcased his status as a mean son of a gun. He ground his forearm into Gustafsson's face and covered his mouth with his hand, making breathing hard. He might not have been able to hurt Gustafsson—but he did his best to make him suffer.
At 1:50, Gustafsson threw up a lazy triangle attempt and Cormier rolled him over and ended up in side control.
"This is not good for Gustafsson," Rogan roared, but things worked out fine for the Swede. Cormier lost control of his opponent and the challenger made it to his feet and proceeded to stick a left-right combo in Cormier's face.
The round ended with Cormier lunging with a right hand. He landed, but it showed clearly the lengths he would need to go to in order to score on his bigger foe. After a weak Gustafsson shot, Cormier slipped and the bell rang as the two traded punches after Cormier scrambled to his feet.
The Verdict
Round 2
Cormier's corner encouraged him to feint and throw punches in combination. Thus far in the fight he'd thrown only single shots to little effect.
Although unlikely, it seemed to be Gustafsson who'd heard that sage advice. The challenger opened the round more aggressively, throwing a left-right combination and mixing in a shot to the body and a leg kick.
At 4:26, Gustafsson attempted to time a shot by Cormier that never comes. The huge uppercut he tried to counter with hit nothing but air. But it also, almost certainly, stuck in Cormier's head. After dominating the first round with his wrestling attack, he almost never returned to it for the rest of the fight.
A scrum and a short left hand left Cormier bloodied. "There's blood under the right eye of the champion," Mike Goldberg said. The disadvantage didn't slow Cormier down and at the 3:57 mark Gustafsson literally turned and ran from Cormier, eventually resetting in the center of the cage.
He met a Cormier shot with a hard knee and surprised the champion with a takedown of his own. Though the wrestler made it to his feet immediately, he was greeted with a stinging Gustafsson punch for his trouble.
"He hurt him with a right hand," Rogan exclaimed in classic Rogan style, predicting trouble that never came. Instead, Cormier recovered almost instantly and grabbed Gustafsson in a single collar tie, a move that ultimately decided this fight. Cormier, as we saw in the Anthony Johnson fight, is hard to hurt.
Cormier takes another shot at 3:10, but Gustafsson defended nicely and cracked him with a nice elbow to the dome. The wrestler, however, was able to push Gustafsson into the cage and was working him over when the Swede once again ran away.
The two men stood on the Monster Energy logo and exchanged punches, with Cormier landing several for Gustafsson's one. "Those uppercuts by DC were excellent," Rogan said.
With just over a minute remaining, Cormier landed a left hand at the end of a combination that snapped Gustafsson's head back. Gustafsson's response, again, was to run. It might be tactically smart to remove yourself from disadvantageous positions, but judges notice that stuff too.
The round closed with a Gustafsson takedown, which surprised both the announcers and Cormier.
"That's a big statement late in this round," Goldberg said.
"That's a big statement period. That's a shock to Daniel Cormier," Rogan said.
The Verdict
Round 3
Cormier continued to be the aggressor, pursuing the taller challenger relentlessly. The action slowed noticeably in the early stages. Gustafsson landed a hard uppercut following a feint but Cormier scored a telling blow of his own, a leaping right hand that busted open his opponent's nose.
Gustafsson met the challenge with a hard right hand of his own, but found himself trapped in Cormier's clinch, brutalized by a series of right hands. Gustafsson attempts another takedown and Cormier meets it with a hard sprawl, his pride, perhaps, stung by being put on his back earlier in the fight.
Gustafsson kept the champion at bay for a time, moving and surviving but not doing enough to make it feel like he was winning. At 1:37 Cormier caught a kick and cracked him with a right, ending in the clinch and once again landing a series of uppercuts.
"He's hanging in there Mike," Rogan said. "We learned about his heart and will in that Jones fight."
As the round came to a close, Gustafsson took advantage of a single moment of Cormier lethargy with a leaping right knee, following it with a left hook and tight shot group of punches as the champion fell to the mat.
Cormier had the wherewithal to grab a hold of a single leg for dear life and ended up riding out the round in the clinch. But this wasn't the offensive clinch he'd used to take control of the fight. His goal here was simply survival.
"What. A. Fight!" Rogan exclaimed as the bell rang.
The Verdict
Round 4
"You're not tired," Gustafsson's coach Andreas Micheal told him in the corner between rounds. "You're not tired."
The challenger attempted to take that to heart, landing body kicks with both legs early and keeping his jab in Cormier's face. It is a punch that doesn't have much snap, but he never stopped throwing it, occasionally following with a right hand.
"DC's trying to spring into his punches to handle this distance," Goldberg explained. It was a tactic that worked only on occasion.
Cormier remained the aggressor, but a physically limited one. He had trouble reaching Gustafsson's head from distance, often resorting to leaping in the air and throwing an odd backhand with his right hand that wouldn't have amounted to much even had it landed.
Gustafsson wilted a bit under the pressure at 3:37, trying once again to run away and reset. This time, however, Cormier chased him, landing some solid punches while Gustafsson continued to mistake the fight for a track meet.
Just over halfway through the round there's a strange paradigm shift. Cormier looked up at the clock and Gustafsson responded by becoming the aggressor. Cormier began circling the cage with Gustafsson chasing and landing a one-two.
Eventually the two return to their normal pattern, Cormier chasing and Gustafsson moving around the outside with a jab and a looping left hook he disguised effectively as a jab throughout. On his feet Cormier looked more desperate than in control, chasing, but mostly ineffectively.
"Daniel Cormier has not looked for a takedown in forever," Goldberg said, underscoring Cormier's shrinking offensive attack.
With just over a minute left in the round, Gustafsson shot a takedown, then landed a knee in the clinch when Cormier defended. After a Gustafsson combination, he retreated with Cormier giving chase. The champion ended the round with a good straight round hand and a combination of blows that mostly missed their mark.
"It's flurries like that that win rounds," Rogan said.
The Verdict
Round 5
In the corner, "Crazy" Bob Cook asked Cormier for a takedown. Across the way, Gustafsson's team knew what was up.
"He's going to try to take you down now," Michael told his charge.
The two men begin the round with a show of respect. Cormier lands a stinging right hand early and followed up with one of the leg kicks that had bugged Gustafsson in the first round.
The challenger continued to move around the cage, but he did little to show anyone he actually wanted to win the fight. Midway through the round he, once again, turned and ran from Cormier. This time he was met by lusty boos from the crowd.
This isn't how you win title fights.
Cormier once again secured a single tie, but this time Cormier grabbed a hold of his right hand to mostly prevent the uppercut. It only took him 22:53 to come up with a counter for the move that defined the bout.
With just over a minute left in the fight, Cormier landed one more solid right hand. The two have been relatively active throughout, but not especially effective. As for much of the fight, Cormier landed the more telling blows.
"(Gustafsson)'s just so weary Mike," Rogan explained.
Gustafsson, however, wasn't done yet. He scored a right hand and a knee with a minute left. The bout closed with both fighters in their respective elements, Cormier throwing punches in the clinch and Gustafsson responding with a final solid knee.
"Outstanding," Goldberg exclaimed as the final bell rang.
The Verdict
If it felt like a close fight, it's because it was. Only two rounds were definitive—the first and final were clearly Cormier's. The middle rounds could reasonably be scored to either man, even the third where Cormier was knocked down by a knee and a left hook.
I scored the fight a draw—but that's a best-case scenario for Gustafsson. He fought a bout designed to ensure survival, not victory. In the end, the judges punished him for that.
Jonathan Snowden covers combat sports for Bleacher Report.
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