UFC 187 descends on Las Vegas on Saturday night, with the headline fight from a packed card seeing Anthony Johnson and Daniel Cormier do battle for the UFC light heavyweight title.
It’s all been set up perfectly, with the No. 1 challenger in Johnson taking on the third-ranked Cormier, and the duo looked ready for a ferocious encounter during the weigh-in.
UFC President Dana White revealed the fighters’ face-off:
Both Johnson and Cormier have the chance to take advantage of disgraced champion Jon Jones being stripped of his title, and they both made weight in their respective bids to do so:
A weigh-in wouldn’t be a weigh-in without some fighting talk doing the rounds and, as you’d expect, Cormier was the most vocal of the duo.
The Olympic wrestler ran Jones incredibly close during his time with the belt, eventually losing to a unanimous decision after five blockbusting rounds.
Cormier put that defeat down to getting too emotionally involved in the fight after grappling with Jones during a press conference, and while he didn’t touch Johnson this time around, he had some choice words to say—per USA Today’s Mike Bohn:
“Rumble,” however, believes he’s more than good enough to beat Cormier, and for good reason, too.
In his most recent fights, Johnson has not only blown away the likes of Alexander Gustafsson, Antonio Rodgerio Nogueira and Phil Davis, but he’s outwitted them in every area—even if they didn’t last too long in his company.
That much is why he produced a calm response to Cormier’s claims—per journalist David Kano:
While both fighters may well believe that they’re going to dominate proceedings on Saturday, it looks all set to be a very tight encounter.
Cormier’s experience means he can outwrestle opponents during the gritty side of fights, but if Johnson lands some hefty blows then it’ll put him firmly in the driving seat.
That tightness is something that Rumble himself appreciates, as he told Fox Sports that both he and Cormier will be going all out for victory:
“Both of us are hungry right now and when a dog is hungry you’ve got to feed him or something bad’s going to happen. Both of us are hungry for that gold. I’m not saying something bad’s going to happen to either one of us, but somebody’s about to get they ass whooped.”
Cormier, meanwhile, is far more egotistical in his prediction, saying that Johnson hasn’t been pushed during his nine unbeaten bouts and will face a new challenge in Vegas—via Fox Sports:
All the stuff that I say, I don’t say it just for the hell of it. I believe it. The truth of the matter is he’s won nine fights in a row, but he hasn‘t been pushed during that stretch. He beat Phil Davis up for 15 minutes. He beat Andrei Arlovski up for 15 minutes, and everybody else he knocked out early. Even if that guy is in there, it’s up to me to go in and win, and if I don’t, he’ll beat me.
So, you can expect Cormier to come out all guns blazing from the very first round, although any kind of positional or guard slip-up will gift Johnson the chance for yet another knockout.
It would be far from a surprise to see this battle go the distance, but if Johnson continues his form, then he’ll find a way to victory.
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