UFC light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier retained his title by split decision, but it wasn't easy.
Whenever Alexander Gustafsson gets a shot at the UFC light heavyweight championship, the fight turns into an instant classic. After pushing then-champion Jon "Bones" Jones to his limit back in 2013, Gustafsson did the same thing to Cormier Saturday night in the main event of UFC 192 in Houston.
The UFC acknowledged Cormier's hard-fought win:
Praise didn't just come from the promotion. Former basketball players like Stacey King and iconic MMA websites like Sherdog all admired the action:
In the first round, Cormier almost immediately showed his superiority in the area of wrestling. He secured one of his patented WWE-like bodyslams on Gustafsson to set the tone. For a while, we've been seeing the highlight of Cormier slamming Dan Henderson. This one might replace that slam moving forward as the head of the Cormier mixtape.
In the second and third rounds, Gustafsson began to come on a bit, but it seemed like the champion was still controlling the rounds as he did great work out of the clinch with uppercuts. It was beginning to look as though Cormier would run away with the fight until Gustafsson tagged him with a titanic knee to the face in the third round.
You could immediately see Cormier grimace as he fell to the canvas. Gustafsson pounced and pounded the champion with punches, but Cormier showed an amazing chin and resolve as he recovered relatively quickly from such a hard shot.
Still, that is the moment Gustafsson will be kicking himself for in the months to come. He had Cormier as close to finished as he could get without closing the deal, but he let him off the hook. Cormier would finish strong in competitive Rounds 4 and 5 to earn the split decision (48-47, 47-48, 49-46).
After the fight was over, Cormier gave it up for Gustafsson:
Cormier outlanded Gustafsson 140-120 in significant strikes, and both fighters secured a takedown. Cormier also spent three minutes, 32 seconds in top control compared, compared to 1:12 for Gustafsson, per UFC.com. While the fight was close, the numbers support the overall decision.
Co-Main Event
Because Johny Hendricks had to pull out of his fight with Tyron Woodley, per Kevin Iole of Yahoo Sports, the Ryan Bader-Rashad Evans bout became the co-main event—and it wasn't a good fight.
Evans was coming back from a nearly two-year layoff, and it showed. He was slow to get off, and he couldn't close the distance against a surprisingly nimble and smooth Bader. Some, such as Fox Sports analysts Brian Stann and Dominick Cruz, had predicted on the pre-event show that Bader might be unnerved by Evans' pre-fight trash talk.
That didn't prove true, as Bader calmly neutralized anything Evns wanted to accomplish in the Octagon. That's why he won all three rounds on all three judges' scorecards.
Evans landed just 25 significant strikes, while Bader landed a modest 52. In a word, this fight was forgettable.
Explosive Knockouts and Breakout Performances
Super Sage
The biggest future star on the card put in some quick work during the UFC Fight Pass prelims.
Sage Northcutt knows how to make a first impression. The 19-year-old phenom needed just 58 seconds to dispose of Francisco Trevino in his UFC debut. The problems for Trevino began when he slipped on a kick attempt.
It appeared as though he was stunned by his fall, and Northcutt wasted no time applying pressure. He went straight in with a series of punches. A hard left put Trevino down, and Northcutt pounded him out the rest of the way until referee Herb Dean called a halt to the bout. The UFC shared the finish with this tweet:
Bleacher Report's Jeremy Botter predicted this will be the last time we see Northcutt so early in a pay-per-view:
Northcutt has everything required to become the face of the UFC. That may sound like an overstatement, but if you've ever seen this kid fight or in an interview, his star power is apparent.
He looks like he's in a boy band but fights with the ferocity of a young Vitor Belfort. Keep an eye on him. He's special.
Mashing Martins
Adriano Martins could put out an instructional video on how to defeat up-and-coming Russian lightweights in the UFC. He's beginning to make a habit out of it.
In his last fight, Martins defeated Rustam Khabilov via split decision back in February. On Saturday night, Martins gave the judges some time off. In the first round. a hard right hand caught Islam Makhachev square on the chin to bring on one of the night's best knockout moments.
The shot dropped Makhachev in a heap, and the fight was quickly stopped. Here's a look at the sequence from Fox Sports UFC:
Martins has earned some attention and consideration for a top-15 ranking. He's 4-1 in the UFC, with three finishes. The 32-year-old Brazilian has a well-rounded game, and he could be on the fast track to title contention in a couple of years.
Tumenov the Terminator
We knew the Albert Tumenov-Alan Jouban fight could be explosive, and the impressive Russian gave us what we expected.
It took just two minutes for Tumenov to vanquish Jouban. Hard combinations put Jouban against the cage, and a vicious right hand put him down for good. The fight was stopped as he wobbled to the floor. He contested, but he could barely stand as he was complaining.
Tumenov is a destructive force who will be a major issue in the welterweight division.
Best of the Rest
The Thug Does Work
Rose "Thug" Namajunas took advantage of a tactical error by Angela "Overkill" Hill en route to a first-round submission victory. Namajunas took Hill's back as the latter showed some sloppy grappling defense early in the bout.
Hill rose to her feet without protecting her neck, and Namajunas sunk in the deep rear-naked choke. Hill nearly went out under the pressure of the hold. The fight was halted, and Namajunas was awarded the victory.
Fox Sports UFC shared the finish:
Namajunas has to be considered a serious contender for the UFC women's strawweight championship. She's known for her striking, but she proved Saturday that her submission game is solid as well.
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