Daniel Cormier showed his grit and toughness like never before, overcoming an incredible challenge from Alexander Gustafsson in a five-round slugfest to retain the light heavyweight title at UFC 192 in Houston on Saturday night.
The fight was so close that the judges couldn’t even agree on the outcome, producing a split-decision result in which Cormier won with scores of 49-46 and 48-47. One judge ruled it 48-47 in favor of Gustafsson, which wasn’t quite enough to pull off the upset.
As UFC notes, Cormier and Gustafsson took part in a bout that will immediately go down as a classic:
Cuts all over Gustafsson’s face and serious bleeding made it apparent that Cormier laid a beating on his opponent, but the same could be said of the champion. The Swedish challenger succeeded in turning the 25-minute bout into a dirty brawl, standing and striking to land numerous crushing blows to Cormier’s face.
When the dust settled and Cormier stood with the belt, he couldn’t help but laud his opponent for giving him quite the beating, per MMAFighting.com:
Based on Cormier’s comments after the fight, his title retention was far from easy.
Despite that, it seemed early on that Cormier was going to ground-and-pound his opponent into submission just as he’s done countless times to taller opponents. The 36-year-old notched an early takedown, ripping Gustafsson to the mat with force and making Round 1 a nasty affair on the ground.
As Motmaitre noted, keeping Gustafsson on the bottom was a big key to winning the fight:
Instead of keeping the fight on the mat where he had a decided advantage, however, Cormier proved unable to fight that way as the five rounds wore on. Gustafsson’s evasive abilities kept him standing, where he could punish Cormier with brutal punches and knees.
Along with some timely takedowns, Gustafsson fought his way back into it in the middle rounds. With the bout entering a fifth and final round that would decide the fight, UFC middleweight champion Chris Weidman chimed in:
Gustafsson seemed intent on avoiding the final-round takedown in Round 5, but Cormier obliged and chose to punish his opponent’s face even further. The bleeding from Gustafsson’s face was so severe that the referee could have stopped the fight.
But the Swede held on in the final round, as the fight went to the judges’ scorecards that left him oh so close to a career-changing victory.
Regardless, Cormier heaped praise upon his opponent after the fight, per Chamatkar Sandhu of MMAJunkie.com:
While Cormier’s status as the light heavyweight champion is still secure after Saturday night, reasons cropped up to believe it will be short-lived. His struggles in dealing with Gustafsson’s power leave many believing that when (or if) Jon Jones makes his likely return, he won’t have trouble getting back his belt.
Still, that didn’t produce any reason to discount what Cormier has done in the time since, as Luke Thomas of MMAFighting.com noted:
There’s no telling what’s next for Gustafsson, who will likely once again need some extra time to heal and recover after taking another beating. The loss gives him three losses in his last four fights, although two have been tight affairs for the title.
Given his performance Saturday, it won’t be long until Gustafsson gets another crack at the belt. As for Cormier, he can at least enjoy several more months at the top.
The shadow of Jones obviously appeared over this fight and will continue to be a footnote to Cormier’s title until he puts that talk to rest by facing off against Bones for the second time.
Until then, it’s Cormier’s world in the light heavyweight spectrum of the UFC, and everyone else is just living in it.
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