The ultimate goal of an athlete in any sport is to win, regardless of how it looks. UFC has created an environment in which winning with style is a secondary achievement because fighters will get rewarded with a $50,000 performance bonus.
Looking at UFC 192, the main event featuring Daniel Cormier defending the light heavyweight championship against Alexander Gustafsson looks like a lock to win a Fight of the Night bonus for the two competitors.
The main criteria for Fight of the Night is putting on an exciting, emotionally engaging battle. It can end in the first round or go to the judges’ table, as long as everyone in the crowd and those watching on television can feel the tension.
Cormier and Gustafsson know how to put on a show. The champion has won performance bonuses in each of his last two fights, with a performance bonus for his submission win over Anthony Johnson and Fight of the Night bonus for his five-round loss against Jon Jones.
Gustafsson had one of the best UFC fights in recent memory, losing to Jones by unanimous decision at UFC 165, and he was awarded a Fight of the Night bonus for his efforts. He followed that up with a double-bonus for his TKO win against Jimi Manuwa.
A title fight is naturally going to have a heightened sense of anticipation around it, so Cormier and Gustafsson will have to do a lot of things wrong to not earn a bonus for their fight.
Cormier Will Stop Gustafsson
Sticking with the main event for one of the two Performance of the Night bonuses, Cormier is poised to have a very big night.
The 36-year-old can rub some the wrong way because of his willingness to make declarative statements, such as telling Damon Martin of Fox Sports that Gustafsson isn’t championship material:
If I looked at his career and his resume, I would say he beat the guys he’s supposed to beat and any time it’s a toss-up fight he loses. In the fights that he’s not overwhelmingly favored, he really hasn’t done as well as he should outside of the fight with (Jon) Jones where he was a huge underdog and he really fought outside of himself and I truly do believe it was him fighting his best fight and Jones might have fought his worst fight and it was super close.
There is certainly a fanbase for Gustafsson that grew when he took Jones five rounds, but Cormier isn’t speaking out of line. After all, the Swedish star is entering Saturday’s fight coming off a loss against Anthony Johnson in January.
Johnson’s win earned him a match against Cormier for the vacant light heavyweight title, which Cormier won by a third-round submission.
Cormier also operates with a technical efficiency, especially with his punching, that makes him fun to watch, as these stats from that fight against Johnson show (via Jason Floyd of the MMA Report):
Unless Gustafsson is able to come out, establish his size advantage and rattle the champion in the first round, Cormier will retain his title in an entertaining battle.
Shawn Jordan’s Streak Continues
There’s not a lot of depth in the UFC heavyweight division right now. Fabricio Werdum, Junior dos Santos and Cain Velasquez are a terrific trio at the top, but things quickly devolve with the likes of Stipe Miocic and Travis Browne as the next-best fighters.
However, even in a weak division, a fighter like Shawn Jordan is still so valuable because of his entertainment value. The 30-year-old Texan is 5-2 in his last seven fights, all of which have ended via knockout or technical knockout, and four ended in the first round.
Jordan is taking on a fighter in Ruslan Magomedov who is happy to be conservative, fighting to earn points from the judges. That’s not a bad strategy to take, even if it doesn’t produce the most exciting fights.
There’s a high degree of entertainment value in Jordan’s knockouts. He’s not just going in with punches. This is a monster of a man who will try anything if he thinks it will help, as this highlight from his last fight against Derrick Lewis in June shows (via UFC on FOX):
That’s a WWE-style finishing move used in a mixed martial arts fight. The spirit of these performance bonuses is to give fighters an incentive to take big swings, pun intended.
Jordan is going to do that, for better or worse. He’s won Performance of the Night bonuses each of his last two fights and will add a third one on Saturday.
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