Amanda Nunes is the new UFC women’s bantamweight champion after a punishing performance against Miesha Tate at UFC 200 on Saturday.
Nunes became the first Brazilian female UFC champion in the promotion’s history. The end came via rear-naked choke, but she did the major damage with devastating right hands to the face. Nunes was teeing off on Tate minutes into the first round, and the former champ was retreating, trying to survive.
The desperate attempt was unsuccessful.
Tate had no answer for Nunes’ strikes and speed. She crumbled under the pressure, and Nunes sunk in the choke to get the win.
It capped off what was a crazy evening and weekend in the UFC.
Brock Locks Up Hunt
Behind a smothering ground game, Brock Lesnar took Mark Hunt apart. In the first and third rounds, he seemingly took Hunt down at will.
Once he got him there, he pummeled The Super Samoan with ground-and-pound. To be honest, it wasn’t all that entertaining.
Lesnar looks like a legitimate UFC heavyweight threat, though his stamina is still a major question mark. That could potentially be a problem against Cain Velasquez or Junior dos Santos, but on Saturday night, Lesnar was up to the task.
Chamatkar Sandhu of MMA Junkie already has thoughts on Lesnar’s next opponent:
That would be an interesting bout commercially, but Fedor Emelianenko is way past his prime. We’ll see.
Cormier’s Empty Victory
To no one’s surprise, Daniel Cormier dominated Anderson Silva en route to a unanimous-decision victory. As expected, Cormier was too big, conditioned and skilled as a wrestler for Silva, who stepped in for Jon Jones on just two days’ notice.
Despite Cormier’s dominant performance, the crowd booed loudly whenever he took Silva down and jeered him when the final decision was read.
It was a no-win situation for him. Fans wanted Cormier to fight Silva in the only style that gave The Spider a chance to win. That’s insane and unfair.
Cormier did what he was supposed to do to prevent himself from taking an embarrassing loss.
Results
- Jim Miller def. Takanori Gomi via first-round TKO
- Gegard Mousasi def. Thiago Santos via first-round TKO
- Joe Lauzon def. Diego Sanchez via first-round TKO
- Sage Northcutt def. Enrique Marin via unanimous decision (29-28 x3)
- TJ Dillashaw def. Raphael Assuncao via unanimous decision (30-27 x3)
- Kelvin Gastelum def. Johny Hendricks via unanimous decision (30-27 x2, 29-28)
- Julianna Pena def. Cat Zingano via unanimous decision (29-28 x3)
- Cain Velasquez def. Travis Browne via first-round TKO
- Jose Aldo def. Frankie Edgar via unanimous decision (49-46×2, 48-47)
- Daniel Cormier def. Anderson Silva via unanimous decision (30-26 x3)
- Brock Lesnar def. Mark Hunt via unanimous decision (29-28 x3)
- Amanda Nunes def. Miesha Tate via first-round TKO
Highlights and Analysis
First-Round Fight Pass Finishes
Takanori Gomi is a Japanese legend, but based on his UFC record (4-7), he had no business being on this card. Jim Miller made him look out of place by taking him down within the first minute of the fight and blistering him with left hands until the referee stopped the fight.
It can’t get much easier than that.
As Fox Sports: UFC indicated with this tweet, Miller became the first fighter to win at UFC 100 and UFC 200. Lesnar would join him later in the evening:
Gegard Mousasi was too experienced for Thiago Santos. The Brazilian is an explosive striker, but he made a tactical error that cost him the fight.
Santos was working his way to his feet after a takedown, but he didn’t protect his face during the transition. Mousasi nailed him with a hard right hand that led to the finish.
In another quick and early finish, Joe Lauzon vs. Diego Sanchez was supposed to be a candidate for Fight of the Night. That didn’t work out. Lauzon smashed through the shopworn warrior in the first round.
He’s one of the most prolific finishers in UFC history, per Michael Carroll of FightMetric:
Lauzon talked about his win after the fight:
The card was decent, but there’s no denying it was missing Jones, Conor McGregor and Ronda Rousey. It didn’t feel as big as it should have felt. Quite honestly, we have Jones to blame for that.
Well, there’s always UFC 300. See you in a few years for that one.
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