The UFC heads to Buffalo, New York, for the first time in more than 20 years with a solid offering on pay-per-view Saturday.
In the main event, light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier defends his light heavyweight belt for the second time against Ant…
The UFC heads to Buffalo, New York, for the first time in more than 20 years with a solid offering on pay-per-view Saturday.
In the main event, light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier defends his light heavyweight belt for the second time against Anthony Johnson in a rematch of their excellent fight from 2015. Until Jon Jones returns, this is the best fight that can be made at 205 pounds. The winner will be a worthy champion.
The co-main event is likewise excellent. Former middleweight champion Chris Weidman attempts to get back on track against the surging Gegard Mousasi, who has won four in a row and six of his last seven. In a wide-open middleweight division with a logjam at the top, the winner of this bout will find himself in the mix for the next title shot after Michael Bisping and Georges St-Pierre finally meet in the Octagon.
The rest of the card drops off in terms of name value, but not the quality of the matchups. Keep an eye on the pay-per-view opener between Will Brooks and Charles Oliveira in particular, which should be a barnburner.
On the preliminary card, talented prospects reign supreme. The welterweight bout between Sean Strickland and Kamaru Usman will determine a new member of the elite in a division that badly needs some new blood at the top. Shane Burgos, Gregor Gillespie and Magomed Bibulatov all have a chance to make statement wins.
Daniel Cormier thinks it’s a desperate move for Jon Jones to be attending UFC 210 this weekend (Sat. April 8, 2017). The UFC light heavyweight champion is preparing to defend his 205-pound title for the second time when he steps into the Octagon against knockout artist Anthony Johnson. The pair initially met back in May
Daniel Cormier thinks it’s a desperate move for Jon Jones to be attending UFC 210 this weekend (Sat. April 8, 2017).
The UFC light heavyweight champion is preparing to defend his 205-pound title for the second time when he steps into the Octagon against knockout artist Anthony Johnson. The pair initially met back in May of 2015 for the then-vacant light heavyweight strap at UFC 187, where Cormier won via third round submission.
Former kingpin of 205 pounds, Jon Jones, was forced to vacate his title due to a hit-and-run incident that resulted in ‘Bones” indefinite suspension. Jones was set to take on Johnson in the main event of UFC 187 to defend his title, for what would have been his ninth consecutive title defense, but was removed from the bout after the hit-and-run and replaced by Cormier.
Jones made his return to action back in April of last year and was scheduled to challenge Cormier for the title he never lost, however, Cormier unfortunately pulled out of the bout after suffering an injury in training camp. Jones instead fought Ovince Saint Preux for the interim light heavyweight strap, which Jones won via unanimous decision.
Cormier, whose sole loss in mixed martial arts (MMA) competition came against Jones back in January of 2015, and Jones were set to unify their titles in the main event of UFC 200, however, Jones was flagged by the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) for a violation and was removed from the contest two days out from the event. Cormier was left to fight Anderson Silva on very short-notice in a non-title bout.
Photo Credit: Joe Camporeale for USA TODAY Sports
After having served a one-year suspension, Jones is nearing his Octagon return and will be in Buffalo for Cormier vs. Johnson II tomorrow (Fri. April 7, 2017) to speak to the media. During a recent media scrum Cormier addressed Jones’ presence at fight week, and noted that the whole situation is ironic (quotes via MMA Mania):
“It’s so ironic to say that you’d rather fight here than at Madison Square Garden. But, you can’t because you tested positive, or you ran over some lady or you did something to make sure you can’t do the one thing you want to do. It’s crazy. It’s really not that hard to stay out of trouble,” Cormier said.
Cormier believes Jones’ decision to speak to the media before his suspension is even up speaks volumes about his character. ‘DC’ takes Jones’ ‘prancing around’ before he is officially allowed to resume fighting hints that ‘Bones’ isn’t truly sorry for what he’s done:
“But, he is going to be here, which in itself is crazy. I am very (surprised). If I was suspended for anything, especially for something that — whatever it may have said to be — and I’m still suspended there is no way I’m out in public. I’m staying home, I lick my wounds until my suspension is done and then I come back out.
“I think that says a lot about your character,” he continued. “Because are you truly sorry for what you did if your willing to prance around even though your actually still under suspension? You can’t talk to me about a fight against Jon Jones because he is not eligible. When your eligible, we can talk.”
Jones is also set for an after party following the UFC 210 pay-per-view (PPV) this weekend. Cormier found this laughable given Jones’ history with alcohol and drugs, and called out Jones’ manager Malki Kawa for allowing such an event:
“And then, I’m going down the street and I see a poster of an afterparty. What genius did that? What genius decided to give Jon Jones, a recovering alcoholic, an afterparty? Who does that? Great Job, Malki. Awesome work, buddy.”
Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports
In the end Cormier is 100 percent focused on the task at hand, Johnson, and is not worried about Jones’ involvement in fight week. He did call Jones’ appearance ‘desperate’, however, and compared him to a varsity quarterback who can’t let go of the past:
“It doesn’t bother me, I just think it’s desperate — very desperate,” Cormier said. “He’s like the old quarterback who was super-successful in high school and he comes back to the parties with his jacket on. You should be fighting here, not walking around with your varsity jacket on with your four state championships.”
It’s the light heavyweight rematch UFC fans have been waiting two years for. No, it’s not Jon Jones vs. Daniel Cormier II—although that would be way more fun—but Cormier vs. Anthony Johnson II is still a top-tier fight in an otherwise shall…
It’s the light heavyweight rematch UFC fans have been waiting two years for. No, it’s not Jon Jones vs. Daniel Cormier II—although that would be way more fun—but Cormier vs. Anthony Johnson II is still a top-tier fight in an otherwise shallow division.
After Cormier won the 205-pound title by submitting Rumble in the third round of their first fight, a fight Jones had to pull out of and Cormier was a replacement in, Johnson is looking for revenge and a chance to wear UFC gold at UFC 210 in Buffalo, New York.
For Cormier, there aren’t any easy fights when you’re the champ. Johnson would arguably the most dangerous fighter in the division even if Jones weren’t suspended. His sheer power and explosiveness are things the rest of the light heavyweight division can’t compete with. Well, that’s if you believe what Cormier has to say regarding the No. 1 contender, who he feels gives up too easily during his fights per Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour (h/t Shaun Al-Shatti of MMA Fighting):
Yes, I do. I don’t ever change. He’ll give up. We’ve seen it too many times. And you’re making me be kinda mean to this guy when that’s not who I am to him, but it’s the truth. You can point to it, [Josh] Koscheck and me and Vitor [Belfort] and all these. It’s only the truth. I’m only speaking the truth, and here’s the thing, I’ll say it in front of him too. It’s not like I won’t say this in front of Anthony Johnson.
Those are fighting words, Mr. Cormier. We’ll see whether the champion can walk the talk a second time when they battle it out inside the Octagon on Saturday night.
For the latest ticket information, visit ScoreBig.com.
Enough Talking Already
Some of my favorite fighters are the best trash talkers in the game. From Conor McGregor and the Diaz brothers to Joanna Jędrzejczyk and the hilarious Rampage Jackson, talking and getting into an opponent’s head is a big part of any fight.
But enough is enough with Cormier talking trash about Johnson and Jones. It’s overdone, and frankly, no one cares about mind games in this bout. We just want to see this fight happen already.
It’s no secret that the winner of this fight will take on Jones once his suspension is up in a few months, which makes this fight feel like a title eliminator between two top contenders, even though Cormier is the champ. Similar to the way Jose Aldo is seen as the fake 145-pound champ because of McGregor, Cormier is seen in that light having lost to Jones previously.
It doesn’t matter that Cormier has tried fighting Jones multiple times. Nor does it matter that he finished Johnson via rear-naked choke and outlasted Alexander Gustafsson in one of the best title fights in history. A rematch between Cormier and Jones must happen in order for the former to receive the respect he deserves as champion.
Having said that, he has to deal with Rumble one more time before he can even think of setting foot inside the Octagon with Jones.
Johnson is a menace with power in both of his hands and lethal body and head kicks that could stop any fighter in his tracks. He has found his home at 205 pounds after early experiments with the welterweight, middleweight and heavyweight divisions.
He is in his sweet spot, and he nearly took Cormier’s head off in their first meeting back in 2015 before gassing out in the second and third rounds.
But it’s important to not fall in love with the knockout. And unfortunately for Johnson, he is a one-trick pony—even though his one trick is near-fatal.
Prediction
Johnson is the slight favorite heading into Saturday, which is strange when you consider that Cormier finished Rumble on a short notice fight. Johnson’s game plan is simple: finish Cormier early and keep this fight on the feet. Otherwise, Cormier will use his Olympic-caliber wrestling and grappling to bring this fight to the canvas and wear Johnson out.
Rumble will box with Cormier in the first and land a couple of decent shots that will remind the champ of the threat he poses. But in the second, you’ll start to see Cormier fight smart and push Johnson up against the cage and put his weight on him. A takedown in the second round with a minute of ground-and-pound will give Cormier the edge going into the third as Rumble begins to show signs of fatigue.
That round will be similar to the second, as Cormier will score a couple of takedowns and open up Rumble’s face with a barrage of elbows.
This fight won’t go past the fourth round, as Cormier will take Johnson down with ease and punish him in side control with some powerful strikes that will earn him a TKO finish, defending his belt once again as the UFC’s undisputed light heavyweight champion.
UFC Fight Night 210 has a very exciting lineup of fights, but one of the most anticipated fights is surely going to be Daniel Cormier taking on Anthony Johnson for the title of UFC light heavyweight champion. Not only will the outcome of the fight determine who is the next light heavyweight champion, but it […]
UFC Fight Night 210 has a very exciting lineup of fights, but one of the most anticipated fights is surely going to be Daniel Cormier taking on Anthony Johnson for the title of UFC light heavyweight champion. Not only will the outcome of the fight determine who is the next light heavyweight champion, but it will also affect the future and the path that the whole weight division itself will undertake going forward.
Cormier (18-MMA and 7-1 UFC) had already faced and fought against Johnson (22 – 5 MMA and 13 -5 UFC) once previously back in May of 2015 at UFC fight night 187. This fight saw Cormier emerge victorious and take the championship and the belt which before him was vacant. The fight had gone into the third round when Cormier won by submission.
It has been almost two years since that fight went down and the pair are going to be back at it. Will the fight yield a different result this time around? The bookmakers don’t seem to agree, but we have all seen the contender develop and grow as fighter in the two years since he last fought Cormier.
One thing is for sure – Cormier is going to have a much more paramount challenge to overcome this time around if he wants to cling on to that championship belt. Johnson is not the best on the ground, but has a deadly knockout punch always up his sleeve.
Intensity was the operative word during faceoffs following media day on Wednesday for UFC 210. We also saw a new person stand between the fighters, and got a first-look at the female fighters set to compete in Buffalo. And yes, Daniel Cormier and Anthony Johnson made sure to put on their “mean mugs.”
Intensity was the operative word during faceoffs following media day on Wednesday for UFC 210. We also saw a new person stand between the fighters, and got a first-look at the female fighters set to compete in Buffalo. And yes, Daniel Cormier and Anthony Johnson made sure to put on their “mean mugs.”
Heading into this his light heavyweight championship rematch with Anthony “Rumble” Johnson in the main event of this weekend’s (Sat., April 8, 2017) UFC 210 from the KeyBank Center in Buffalo, New York, 205-pound titleholder Daniel Cormier knows his legacy will rest on his rivalry with troubled-yet-dominant former champ Jon Jones. Cormier recently admitted as much,
Heading into this his light heavyweight championship rematch with Anthony “Rumble” Johnson in the main event of this weekend’s (Sat., April 8, 2017) UFC 210 from the KeyBank Center in Buffalo, New York, 205-pound titleholder Daniel Cormier knows his legacy will rest on his rivalry with troubled-yet-dominant former champ Jon Jones.
Cormier recently admitted as much, and Johnson, the man he submitted to win the belt at UFC 187 in 2015, had a similar stance when he and Cormier appeared on ESPN’s “5ive Rounds’ Podcast earlier this week (via MMA Fighting), believing Jones to “always be around, regardless of what happened.”
That was where Cormier drew the line, however, noting that the fact he failed a drug test only three days before their scheduled rematch at last year’s UFC 200 should not be overlooked just because of how transcendent he was as a fighter:
“You kind of expect it, but there’s only one problem with Anthony’s answer,” Cormier said. “I think we’ve got to stop saying, ‘Regardless of what happened.’ We know what happened. We know exactly what he did. So when we say stuff like, ‘Regardless of what happened,’ or we don’t state the facts, it’s almost like we’re sweeping it under the rug. We know what he did. We know the bad things that he did. We know that he tried to cheat. We know all this stuff. So I get annoyed because I’m like, ‘Why are you asking me about a guy that, three days before we were supposed to fight, pissed hot?’ That’s the stuff that annoys me, not the fact that he’s a good fighter. He’s a great fighter.”
Jones unceremoniously tested positive for banned estrogen blockers heading into his anticipated second fight with Cormier, and the former champion and his team went on to defend their case by claiming sexual performance enhancement drugs were the culprit. There’s a large view that USADA accepted Jones’ defense following an arbitration hearing, but Cormier wanted to clear the air by detailing USADA did not accept his argument, which lead to the full one-year suspension as a sanction:
“He got that year [suspension] from USADA, right?” Cormier said. “He got a year suspension and there’s this misconception that USADA believed his excuse. They did not believe his excuse. They gave him the max amount of time that they could for what he did! The defense that he had didn’t prove anything. USADA gave him the max suspension that they could give him so, to me, he’s a cheater. They didn’t buy that whole — what was it, a fertility pill, or a sex pill? They didn’t buy it because if they bought the explanation, they would not have given him the max amount of time that they could have.”
It’s the light heavyweight rematch UFC fans have been waiting two years for. No, it’s not