UFC 230: Cormier vs. Lewis post-fight analysis in six easy tweets

UFC 230: Cormier vs. Lewis and the Middleweight Tournament deliver the goods. Here’s the tweetdown.

As much as we wanted the UFC 230 main event to live up to its hype in Madison Square Garden, it wasn’t the fight itself that got us hyped. Yes, Derrick Lewis can end the fight on a whim, and a prayer. Sure, Daniel Cormier might just be the best fighter on the planet, pound for pound. But how many fans actively wanted to see one of these men lose?

Probably not many. Granted, we watch to see violence. But violence against these men? It’s that rare instance in a slasher film when you don’t want the masked killer to ginsu one of the usually-disposable teens. To that end, the main event delivered in a unique way: Cormier makes history, continues his run as MMA’s rare heroes, and Lewis’ stock hasn’t been lowered — plus he’s got that nice lifetime Popeye’s deal.

It wasn’t exciting. But does that matter? Excitement might have been too much for fans to bear. Thankfully, the rest of UFC 230 didn’t lack in that category.

Pop-Prize

The fight itself didn’t tell us anything we didn’t already know. Cormier made it look easy: avoiding damage, and using his elite-speed to keep Lewis horizontal for the bulk of the fight. The next move is clearly Brock Lesnar, who the UFC already has Cormier answering questions about. Cormier’s answers might seem like empty sportstalk veneration — I know I can make mincemeat out of this freakshow, but unlike you, I have to actually keep him from ripping my head off, so best to take him seriously even if the rest of the world may not — but as we discussed in our preview of the bout, Cormier is a serious fight thinker. Lesnar’s raw size could be enough to force Cormier into fighting off his back at various portions. Conventional wisdom says that Cormier can easily replicate what Cain Velasquez did, but as MMA proves time and time again, conventional wisdom rarely counts for much. This is especially true at heavyweight where conventional wisdom breaks down like a freshmaker in bottle of Barq’s.

Reffer Madness

Maybe the most indelible image of the night came at the end of the Chris Weidman vs. Ronaldo Souza fight. Weidman is watching from the heavens as UFC fans around the world read his eulogy. Suddenly a barrel-chested, man-in-black flicks Weidman’s wings, and brings him back to life just to see Weidman killed once more by the crocodile’s jaws. Dan Miragliotta didn’t make a mistake. He made a decision. With Jacare, in his face, pleading for him to stop the fight, Miragliotta decided Weidman wasn’t done, despite helplessly clinging to Jacare’s ankles for an eternity in a prone position that Jacare had all day to take advantage of — didn’t — and followed up only after Miragliotta decided enough blood hadn’t been shed. The only silver lining, since we know there won’t be any consequences for Miragliotta, is that at least the stoppage spawned good jokes.

It wasn’t necessarily a great performance from Jacare. Weidman’s early pressure busted up his nose, and while it was never the one-sided drubbing that the commentary team made it sound like — thanks to Jacare’s commitment to early bodywork — Jacare was in trouble of letting the fight get away from him. In response, he stalked forward with a left hook to the body, a big overhand right, and a lancing leg kick: more or less in that order. Although this is all a proper distillation of the bout, it neglects one of the most critical components to Jacare’s victory: his head movement. There were times when I thought I was looking at an oversized Jose Aldo. Granted, Aldo is something of a craftsman. Aldo uses his head movement not just as a defensive maneuver: but to activate counterattacks. Jacare’s head movement never helped propel meaningful offense out of it. He kind of lumbered forward for most of the fight. But it still kept what was an otherwise effective, sweeping attack from Weidman doing as damage as it could have.

MMA: Cruel Mistress

Phil Mackenzie had a great observation about middleweight in our preview: the top of the division only ever plays out in physically exhaustive wars. I think this explains the high level of variance at 185. Everybody has a threshold. At a certain point, you have to figure out how to avoid crossing that threshold, or how to prolong it. Jacare’s head movement prolonged his threshold. Weidman went right in and engaged his threshold, hoping Jacare to be the first to fold. It was the kind of performance Weidman deserves credit for on one level but not another. It doesn’t happen often, but I think I was on the money for once in our preview, “Weidman has a high IQ at the level of mechanics: on the ground he knows how to position himself in top control, on the feet he knows how to time his strikes. However, at the level of strategy, I don’t think he’s particularly effective at making fight inferences and tactical deductions.“

Level-Two versus Level-Tardy

If we’re reviewing fights in terms of importance, let’s skip the rest and talk about Israel Adesanya. It’s hard to believe he made his UFC debut just this year. I don’t know what else to say about Adesanya that couldn’t be better captured in drunken exclamations in all caps. Derek Brunson is a legit middleweight, and Adesanya patiently but violently picked him apart before the second round could begin. There’s that great sequence where he switches stances from southpaw to orthodox — something other fighters do with either less grace (Anthony Pettis) or less purpose (Stephen Thompson, to a lesser extent) — and instead of using it to bait out offense, or confuse his opponent with tactical abstractions, Adesanya uncorks a question mark kick that chains immediately into a casting punch that drops Brunson.

This is the difference between a good MMA striker, and a great striker; the ability to generate offense in sequences rather than moments. Even Israel’s response to Brunson getting dropped is hunching over to crack him with an uppercut as Derek bambi-walks to the other side of the cage. Cormier might be the runaway fighter-of-the-year, and I have no problem with that, but Adesanya makes a hell of a case even though he’s nothing more than the Rookie of the Year right now. Not bad.

Late Notice Terror-tory

Jared Cannonier has been your average decent UFC fighter with something of a weight problem. He debuted at heavweight, losing to Shawn Jordan, then tried his hand at light heavyweight to mixed success, and on Saturday, debuted at middleweight with great success. Luckily for Jared, he was already planning on making his middleweight debut before Luke Rockhold had to pull out due to injuries. It wasn’t really a great fight for Cannonier. David Branch controlled the fight up to that point, and Cannonier was reluctant to do anything more than throw the odd Back Off, Man punch. Eventually one of them found a home right on Branch’s face, and now Cannonier puts himself in the middleweight mix.

Plan-nata

The old saying goes: a good plan today is better than a perfect plan tomorrow. For Lando Vannata, I suspect that he believes no plan today is better than a good plan tomorrow. That may sound condescending, but it’s not. A little facetious? Maybe. But I think there’s value to embracing the chaos of MMA. If chaos is the tide, you don’t stop it with a broom. You ride the wave, strengthen the rises, and soften the falls. Vannata embraces the chaos so fervently, it’s been both a blessing as well as a curse throughout his career. The majority draw to Matt Frevola is Vannata’s second draw in his last tgree fights. His only official win in six UFC fights is a wheel kick knockout over John Makdessi. So maybe it’s more a curse than a blessing, but fans aren’t exactly complaining. I’d like to see Vannata take strategy a little more seriously just to better gauge his potential, but if he doesn’t, the skin’s coming off his nose. Not mine.

• Not much to add on the odds and ends front. Karl Roberson probably could have done more, but Jack Marshman wasn’t gonna be stopped by even the heaviest of punches, so Roberson went for the path of least resistance.
• Good win for Jordan Rinaldi for cutting through Jason Knight with ease.
• Sijara Eubanks didn’t exactly make a great case for what should have been. Her fight with Roxanne Modafferi was lackluster at best, and she missed weight in a bout that nearly ended up being for the vacant flyweight title against Valentina Shevchenko. There’s really no excuse for that.
• Julio Arce had better luck on Sheymon Moraes’ back, and then appeared to abandon the strategy. I can’t criticize him too hard. If that much blood was pouring out of my head, I probably wouldn’t even know the difference between an adverb and a noun (I struggle hard enough as is).
• Hell of a performance from Shane Burgos. I looked away from the monitor after Kurt Holobaugh dropped him, thinking that was a wrap, and a split second later it was Burgos with his hand raised.