Cormier (photo) defended his belt against Gustafsson in a fight. Photo: Josh Hedges/UFC
Daniel Cormier He successfully achieved his first light heavyweight title defense at UFC 192, an event held this Saturday (3) in Houston, United States. However, the champion did not have an easy life against Alexander Gustafson, which provided a real fight for the audience and sold the defeat, which came in a split decision from the judges, dearly.
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Right from the start, it seemed like Cormier wouldn't have any major difficulties. The champion managed to close the distance and apply a cinematic takedown to the challenger. However, after the Swede managed to get up, the fight changed shape.
Gustafsson went on to successfully defend Cormier's takedown attempts, including taking the champion to the ground more than once. That was when “DC” changed its strategy and started to bet on dirty boxing, that is, in strikes at a very short distance from the clinch.
There, Cormier started to take advantage and punish Gustafsson's face. In the third round, however, the Swede responded in the clinch and landed a beautiful knee on the champion, who felt the blow and fell. Then, Cormier recovered and applied his strategy again, accepting the exchange, while Gustafsson tried to continue using his excellent footwork.
In the final round, with both visibly tired and aware of the balance of the fight so far, Cormier once again gained the upper hand on the feet. The North American landed better blows and abused the ball again. dirty boxing, which ended up being decisive for the final result.
Two of the judges gave victory to the champion (48 to 47 and 49 to 46), against one in favor of Gustafsson (48 to 47). Thus, Cormier remained UFC light heavyweight champion in the judges' split decision.
“Now I’m going to put fight promotion aside and be myself. Alex, thank you so much for fighting with me tonight! You made me a better person and a better fighter! I know I talk a lot and it's my job to sell fights, but I expected exactly this Alexander Gustafson”, said Cormier, already with his belt on his body.
The Swede also showed respect to the champion. “DC is a monster. He proved that he knows how to exchange, that he knows how to box. He is a real champion”, said Gustafsson, also applauded by the crowd.
Bader overcomes Rashad and gets closer to the belt
Bader (photo) beat Evans in a unanimous decision by the judges. Photo: Disclosure/UFC
It wasn't that eye-popping performance, but Ryan bader he scored his fifth consecutive victory in the UFC and got even closer to the long-awaited fight for the light heavyweight belt.
The fight with Rashad evans as a whole it was quite lukewarm. Despite there being two wrestlers, the fight took place practically entirely standing up. In general, Evans walked further forward, but Bader made better use of the distance and managed to connect more blows, being kicks to the body like jabs – which ended up causing a large swelling in the opponent's right eye.
This, combined with falls at important moments, were enough to give Bader the victory in the unanimous decision of the judges. He was coming off a victory over Anthony Perosh, Rafael Feijão, Ovince St Preux e Phil Davis. Evans, in turn, suffers his third defeat in the last five fights, returning with a bad result after a long period of inactivity.
TUF champion wins and challenges Ronda
J. Peña (photo) won another one in the UFC. Photo: Josh Hedges/UFC
At the opening of the night's main card, Julianna Pena won an important victory against Jessica Eye. The TUF 18 champion dominated the action in a busy fight, winning the judges' decision.
However, the fight did not go entirely smoothly for Peña. In the second round, Eye obtained a dominant position on the ground and almost managed to land a katagatame. However, she landed an illegal knee on the ground, and ended up losing a point.
In the final period, Peña dominated again and also came close to the submission, this time with a rear naked choke. The fight, however, ended up being in the hands of the judges, who unanimously gave the victory to the “Venezuelan Shrew”.
After the fight, Peña sent a very direct message to the current champion of the category, Ronda Rousey. “The UFC says she is the Mike Tyson of MMA… But I want to let you know that I am Evander Holyfield”, said the fighter, referring to the boxers who faced each other twice in the 90s, with two victories for Holyfield.
Benavidez gets the better of a duel between former challengers
Benavidez also won at UFC 192. Photo: Josh Hedges/Zuffa LLC
Another interesting fight on the main card was between former flyweight title challengers, Joseph Benavidez and Ali Bagautinov. And the North American showed that he can be considered the second best athlete in his weight class by coming away with the victory.
The fight, however, was quite even. The two showed a lot of mutual respect on their feet, with many moments of study. Benavidez took more initiative and combined more strikes, although Bagautinov bothered him with some punches (which opened a cut on his rival's eyebrow) and takedown attempts.
Over the course of 15 minutes of action, Benavidez showed greater efficiency and ended up winning by unanimous decision from the judges. It was the North American's fourth consecutive victory since losing to the champion, Demetrious Johnson, in December 2013; the Russian suffered his second defeat in a row, as he was beaten by the same Johnson in his most recent fight, in June last year.
UFC 192 results:
MAIN CARD
Daniel Cormier derrotou Alexander Gustafson in the judges' split decision
Ryan bader derrotou Rashad evans in the unanimous decision of the judges;
Ruslan Magomedov defeated Shawn Jordan via unanimous decision;
Joseph Benavidez defeated Ali Bagautinov by unanimous decision of the judges;
Julianna Pena derrotou Jessica Eye in the unanimous decision of the judges;
PRELIMINARY CARD
Yair Rodriguez derrotou Dan Hooker in the unanimous decision of the judges;
Albert Tumenov defeated Alan Jouban by knockout (kick and punches) at 2:55 of R1;
Adriano Martins defeated Islam makhachev by knockout (punch) at 1min46s of R1;
Rose namajunas derrotou Angela Hill by submission (rear-naked choke) at 2min47s of R1;
Sage Northcutt defeated Francisco Trevino by technical knockout (elbows) at 57 seconds in R1;
Sergio Pettis defeated Chris Cariaso via unanimous decision;
Derrick Lewis defeated Viktor Pesta by technical knockout (punches) at 1min15s of R3
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