He had to battle past a treacherous task, but Daniel Cormier withstood a brutal beating from Alexander Gustafsson on Saturday night at UFC 192 in Houston to retain his light heavyweight title.
The main event lasted all five rounds, a whopping 25 minutes of action that left viewers unable to look away as the two 205-pound menaces traded blows and grappled around the octagon. It was such a close fight that the judges couldn’t even agree, making it a split decision.
But in the end, Cormier got the nod when Bruce Buffer announced his name as the champion, per UFC:
The judges failed to come to a consensus after the fight. With scores of 49-46 and 48-47 in favor of Cormier and one score of 48-47 for Gustafsson, it could have easily been split the other way.
It wasn’t hard to see why the judges had a difficult time agreeing with one another. Aside from Cormier‘s lone loss in his UFC career to Jon Jones, he took his most brutal beating in his six-year pro career.
Early on, it appeared that Cormier was going to make good on his supreme advantage—the ground and pound. All of six inches shorter than his opponent, Cormier established that quickly with a Round 1 takedown, bloodying up Gustafsson in the process.
MMAFighting.com noted one instance where Cormier threw Gustafsson around like a rag doll:
But as the fight wore along and Cormier looked more fatigued, he seemed to abandon it altogether, as Matthew Campbell of WSFB noted:
Part of that was due to Gustafsson‘s impeccable takedown defense, as he dodged Cormier repeatedly and ran circles around him, defiantly avoiding any chance for Cormier to take him down. That allowed the Swede to make it a dirty fight, throwing hands and swelling up Cormier‘s right eye.
Even in the wake of a close defeat, Gustafsson‘s performance was worth lauding and nearly worth a win, as MMA History Today observed:
When the fight rolled into the late rounds and Cormier continued to prove unable to take Gustafsson down, it appeared to be anyone’s fight to win. But in what seemed like a winner-take-all Round 5, Cormier stepped up to the task and laid it all on the line.
With Gustafsson’s face dark red and severely cut up, all Cormier had to do was land a few more big blows in the final five minutes. He did just that, seeming to take the final round in convincing fashion.
That left him as a split-decision winner, but obviously worse for wear and acknowledging the fight he got from Gustafsson, per UFC:
“The Mauler” made good on his well-earned nickname, taking it to the light heavyweight champion in full force and nearly coming away with a long-awaited title. But just as was the case in 2013 against Jones, he came up inches short of glory.
The obvious question as to what’s next revolves around Jones himself, as it’s long been expected that the former champion will get his chance to return against Saturday’s winner. And unsurprisingly, Jones chimed in on social media before deleting it, but Danny Segura of MMAFighting.com captured it beforehand:
Before Cormier truly turns the page to get ready for a scintillating rematch with Jones, however, he reaped praise upon Gustafsson after a memorable fight, per Matt Erickson and Justin Park of MMAJunkie.com:
“Alexander Gustafsson is an absolute stud,” Cormier said. “He’s one of the best fighters in the world. The sport needs guys like Alexander Gustafsson who can go out there and lay it all on the line against the best fighters in the world.”
The fight with Gustafsson may end up helping Cormier in the long run, who learned to bring it against one of the best standing strikers in the sport. The way he fine-tuned his fighting style to beat him anyway, despite playing into his opponent’s strengths, was nothing short of amazing.
It will take even more for Cormier to be able to do the same against Jones, but after rising above a stiff test from the one man who has come closest to beating Jones, Cormier should be flying high despite taking a heavy beating.
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