This is what happens when you let your mouth write a check your Octagon skills can’t cash.
On Saturday night in the co-main event at UFC 170, Daniel “DC” Cormier embarrassed Patrick Cummins in a minute and 19 seconds, earning a TKO victory. Cummins was…
This is what happens when you let your mouth write a check your Octagon skills can’t cash.
On Saturday night in the co-main event at UFC 170, Daniel “DC” Cormier embarrassed Patrick Cummins in a minute and 19 seconds, earning a TKO victory. Cummins was a late replacement after Rashad Evans tore up his knee 10 days before the fight.
Both men brought exceptional wrestling backgrounds into the fight, but the difference on Saturday night was DC’s striking. His hand speed and punching power were just too much for Cummins. Cormier first hurt his opponent with an uppercut out of the clinch.
He never let up and continued to bomb him with hard right hands as the staggered Cummins tried to recover.
Cormier was in fantastic shape in his first fight at 205 pounds. He moved well, but still displayed the power necessary to gain advantageous positioning in the standing grapple. He quickly maneuvered himself to a position to throw the strikes that ultimately ended the fight.
Cummins and Cormier had crossed paths in their training past, and apparently the former had gotten the best of those encounters. On Saturday night, Cormier proved that practice and a real professional fight are two different things.
Trash talk from Cummins seemed to ignite Cormier. Cummins claimed to have made Cormier cry in a training session years ago. The talk was a violation of an unwritten training rule, and Cormier did not take kindly to the chiding.
He was bursting at the seams to get a chance to shut Cummins up. How confident was Cormier that he would win? Take a look at the plugger and Twitter message in this tweet:
Before the win at UFC 170, Cormier came off a bit bland, but the emotion and mean streak that were brought out of him for this fight will do wonders for his popularity.
Per this tweet, Sherdog Rewind agrees:
Longtime fight fan Rosie Perez was certainly impressed. She tweeted this after Cormier’s win:
DC has his eye on climbing the ladder at light heavyweight. Obviously, Jon “Bones” Jones is at the top of that heap. Cormier has a few guys to fight through before he can challenge the champion.
Per Mike Johnston of Sportsnet, Cormier is trying to slide into an opportunity to accelerate his ascension up the ranks.
It still remains to be seen whether Cormier is ready to challenge Bones. Cummins was seriously overmatched, but there is no doubt how good Cormier looked at 205 pounds. Cormier will need to beat someone a little more highly regarded at 205 before we’re able to determine that.
If he continues to shine the way he did on Saturday night. Cormier could be one of the biggest stars in the UFC in 2014.
Daniel Cormier made the drop to light heavyweight for the first time in his career, and he was supposed to meet Rashad Evans at UFC 170. An injury to Evans opened the door for Patrick Cummins to walk through.
Cummins accepted the fight on short notice …
Daniel Cormier made the drop to light heavyweight for the first time in his career, and he was supposed to meet Rashad Evans at UFC 170. An injury to Evans opened the door for Patrick Cummins to walk through.
Cummins accepted the fight on short notice and made his debut on Saturday night against one of the elite in the sport.
Cormier and Cummins had plenty of talk in the lead-up to the bout, and it helped reinvigorate the hype surrounding UFC 170 that was lost due to Evans’ injury. Cummins had the opportunity to make a name for himself in MMA, and Cormier needed a win to become a viable title challenger.
Here is what Twitter had to think about the co-main event of UFC 170.
Pre-Fight
Cummins‘ pre-fight talk helped fire up Cormier for this fight. He was a two-time All-American at Penn State, but Cormier had the more impressive wrestling credentials. A lot of the pre-fight hype surrounded Cummins‘ and Cormier‘s time training together prior to Cormier‘s Olympic bid.
Round 1
Cormier takes his time, finds his spots and annihilates Cummins. Absolutely dominant over a UFC newcomer. Cormier takes care of business in just 1:19. Impressive, but expected. Cormier is a legit threat to the UFC Light Heavyweight Championship.
Round-by-round results from the UFC 170 main card will be after the jump beginning at 10 p.m. ET / 7 p.m. PT. Refresh the page every few minutes for all the latest, and shoot us your own thoughts in the comments section.
Round-by-round results from the UFC 170 main card will be after the jump beginning at 10 p.m. ET / 7 p.m. PT. Refresh the page every few minutes for all the latest, and shoot us your own thoughts in the comments section.
Preliminary Card Results
– Alexis Davis def. Jessica Eye via split-decision (29-28 x 2, 28-29)
– Raphael Assuncao def. Pedro Munhoz via unanimous decision (30-27 x 3)
– Aljamain Sterling def. Cody Gibson via unanimous decision (29-28 x 3)
– Zach Makovsky def. Josh Sampo via unanimous decision (30-27 x 2, 29-28)
– Erik Koch def. Rafaello Oliveira via TKO, 1:24 of round 1
– Ernest Chavez def. Yosdenis Cedeno via split-decision (29-28, 28-29, 30-27)
Robert Whittaker vs. Stephen Thompson
Naturally, Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson comes out to “Wonderboy” by Tenacious D. Whittaker shows love to Australia by walking out to AC/DC’s “Hells Bells.”
Round 1: Thompson opens with a side kick. Whittaker sticks the jab. Whittaker throws a high kick. Thompson marches forward with punches, then lands a leg kick. Body kick then a leg kick from Thompson. He tries an outside axe kick that scores him style points if nothing else. Great head movement and counters from Thompson. Truly, he is the white Machida. A hook kick from Thompson lands. Whittaker pops the jab. Thompson drops Whittaker with a dead-on right straight, then swarms as Whittaker tries to get to his feet. Thompson clinches, fires in some knees, and clubs Whittaker down to the mat again. Thompson with a frenzy of ground and pound until Mario Yamasaki calls a stop to it. Impressive, violent finish from Wonderboy. Stephen Thompson def. Robert Whittaker via TKO, 3:43 of round 1.
Mike Pyle vs. TJ Waldburger
And now Waldburger is coming out to “TNT” by AC/DC. What the hell. He’s not even Australian. And Mike Pyle is rocking the mullet tonight. Waldburger is already dead.
Round 1: Waldburger lands first with a leg kick. Pyle lands a kick but almost eats a big overhand left in return. Pyle fires a pair of leg kicks. They trade leg kicks. Pyle dashed forward with punches. Pyle grabs a clinch and Waldburger pushes him against the fence. Pyle escapes with ease. Waldburger slips while throwing a kick and Pyle chases him when he gets up but can’t capitalize. Waldburger lands a right, then a left, then a leg kick. Pyle tries a front kick to the body, Waldburger grabs him, Pyle sweeps him to the mat and gets on top. Then, Pyle transitions into side control. Very slick work by Pyle tonight. But then Waldburger powers up to his feet and escapes. They clinch against the fence. Knees to the body then to the head from Pyle. Waldburger throws a pair of knees to Pyle’s leg as the round expires. 10-9 Pyle.
Round 2: Uh…I think my dog just erased everything I wrote for this round when he ran across my laptop. WTF. Short version: It was a much closer frame…Waldburger may have had a slight edge in the striking total, but Pyle had some good grappling moments and bloodied Waldburger’s face with knees.
Round 3: Hard right hand from Pyle and he smells blood. They clinch, Pyle shoulder-checks im in the face then lands a hard left hook. And then a spinning back elbow. Pyle is on fire. He lands two nasty elbows in the clinch then fires punches until Waldburger stumbles to the mat. Pyle almost gets a guillotine but Waldburger pulls out. Pyle bears the ever-loving fuck out of Waldburger with punches and elbows from the top. Joe Rogan asks Herb Dean why he’s not stopping the fight. This beating…it just keeps going. Okay, now Herb stopped the fight. Mike Pyle def. TJ Waldburger via TKO, 4:03 of round 3.
Rory MacDonald vs. Demian Maia
Round 1: They meet in the center of the cage and trade haymakers. Demian Maia shoots once, MacDonald defends. He tries it again and single-legs MacDonald to the mat. Maia trying to pass guard. He throws down an elbow. And boom, Maia scores mount. Maia softening MacDonald up with punches to the head and body. MacDonald tries to shrimp out and almost does it. Maia in half-guard now. MacDonald uses double-butterfly guard, trying to prevent the mount again. MacDonald kicks him off and gets up. Maia shoots and Rory defends. The two fighters start brawling and Maia lands the harder shots. MacDonald is bloodied. The round ends, and it’s an easy 10-9 for Maia.
Round 2: Maia landing some serious power punches, but MacDonald comes back with a series of head kicks that have Maia hurt. Maia shoots and fails. McDonald with a hard body kick and Maia shoots in desperation. MacDonald is having a lot of success with his kicks right now, which are landing at all levels. MacDonald lands a head kick as Maia is shooting in. MacDonald has Maia rocked with punches and kicks. MacDonald using his range really well, landing long jabs and straights. Overhand left from Maia, kicks to the body and leg from MacDonald. MacDonald with a kick to the body, a kick to the head. He tries a superman punch. MacDonald measure up Maia and stings him with a cross. He lands another body kick as the round ends. That round was all MacDonald, 10-9. We’re even heading into round 3, but Rory has the momentum.
Round 3: MacDonald with more long punches. Maia lands a left straight. MacDonald with more kicks to the body and head. MacDonald with another clean right hand. Maia shoots, unsuccessfully once again. MacDonald punches him in the face for it. MacDonald thoroughly outboxing Maia. Maia shoots for a single. Then he grabs both legs and slams MacDonald to the mat. Maia on top, MacDonald pushes him off and scrambles away. MacDonald fends off another takedown attempt. And another. MacDonald with a body punch before stuffing another takedown. MacDonald with a front kick to the body. MacDonald stuffs a takedown and makes Maia pay, landing a nice uppercut. MacDonald with jabs and another big uppercut. And a right straight. MacDonald stuffs one last takedown before the bell. Pretty clear 10-9 for Rory as far as I’m concerned. After a couple of back-to-back stinkers, that was a fantastic performance from Rory MacDonald. Hey look, all the judges got it right! Rory MacDonald def. Demian Maia via unanimous decision (29-28 x 3). “The animal is back,” MacDonald says. “I’m ready to kick some ass, I’m ready to kill…I want that belt.”
Ladies and gentlemen, we have now entered the “squash match” portion of the evening…
Daniel Cormier vs. Patrick Cummins
Round 1: Cormier takes the center of the cage. Cummins lands a sharp leg kick. He shoots, Cormier defends. Cummins with a nice body kick. Cormier lands a hard uppercut. Some hockey-fighting from the clinch. Cummins literally turns his back and runs away. Cormier follows him and throws bombs. An uppercut from Cormier glances off the side of Cummins’s head, and Cummins hits the mat. Cormier starts throwing down bombs. Cummins rolls and turtles. More big, nasty shots from Cormier and it’s all over. Cummins tries to get to his feet. He looks disappointed with the stoppage, but come on bro, you were gonna get killed out there. Daniel Cormier def. Patrick Cummins via TKO, 1:19 of round 1.
Ronda Rousey vs. Sara McMann
Round 1: Rousey storms to the center of the Octagon, and McMann lands multiple punches to Ronda’s dome as she’s coming in. They clinch against the fence and Rousey lands a hard knee to the body and a sharp elbow. They trade knees. Rousey lands another knee to the liver and McMann drops to the mat and covers up. Herb Dean steps in…just as McMann grabs a leg and tries to recover. The crowd boos the stoppage as premature. But what are you gonna do, McMann dropped like a corpse. Ronda Rousey def. Sara McMann via TKO, 1:06 of round 1. So that’s what it looks like to see Ronda win by something other than an armbar…interesting.
Well damn, the main card is over in two hours, and it doesn’t look like they’re going to replay any of the prelims. Are Goldberg and Rogan going to have to kill time for a full hour? I want no part of this. Good night, all.
In terms of unfortunate realities, UFC 170 was in a pretty miserable place as recently as two weeks ago: The co-main event was between two top contenders, and pretty much no one cared.
Rashad Evans and Daniel Cormier were set to square off, each perhap…
In terms of unfortunate realities, UFC 170 was in a pretty miserable place as recently as two weeks ago: The co-main event was between two top contenders, and pretty much no one cared.
Rashad Evans and Daniel Cormier were set to square off, each perhaps a win away from a title shot. Evans has been resurgent after a loss in February last year, and Cormier is a long-undersized heavyweight finally willing to fight in his true weight class.
And no one cared.
It could be the UFC’s insistence on pairing Evans with Fox co-workers (next up: Evans versus Karyn Bryant on a card headlined by Joe Buck battling Troy Aikman) or that Cormier needs more of a jerk like Roy Nelson or Frank Mir to make people interested.
It could be that, on a card with Ronda Rousey, neither man is going to be the star because of the promotion’s recent Ronda regimen.
Perhaps the fight just had an air of one happening because two halfway relevant dudes needed to fight in order to justify a pay-per-view in the middle of February, and those two were healthy and available.
Regardless of the reasoning, it wasn’t catching people’s attention.
A lot can change in a few days.
Evans went down last week with a knee injury, on the shelf until later this year after surgery. Cormier, threatened with removal from the card, pleaded with the entire universe to step up and fight him. Pat Cummins, serving coffee in California, said, “Sure, why not?” and signed with the UFC.
Wait, what?
Yeah, totally.
Local cauliflower-eared barista Pat Cummins said he’d fight Cormier, and the UFC was into it. Cummins, a 4-0 prospect with a history with Cormier, said he wanted the fight, and after a little digging by the promotion, the UFC thought it could work.
So far, it has.
Cummins has a natural salesmanship about him, a knack for saying the exact right thing when the cameras are on to make people want to watch him fight. He also has that chance-of-a-lifetime charm that fans are always curious of, and he’s handled the early days of his UFC run with surprising aplomb for an unknown.
When given the chance at Cormier, he immediately let the world know that he’d made the Olympian cry in training. The move drew attention from fans and heat regarding the “code” in wrestling, but Cummins dealt with that as well.
“That’s the business,” he told MMA Fighting‘s Dave Doyle at this week’s open workouts. “We need to come out here and we’re getting in a fight.”
He continued: “The wrestling community hasn’t had a big outcry on the wrestling code thing, I think [that] was him backpedaling a little bit.”
There’s little question that an Evans-Cormier fight would be more competitive, but if we’re being honest right now, that’s not what the UFC needs. It needs a guy who can say some crazy stuff, who has enough history to sell the human element and maybe move a few units come Saturday night.
Evans and Cormier, for all their competitive appeal, weren’t doing that.
UFC 170 is not deep. By most reasonable standards, due to injuries and an unsustainable run of 10 events in 13 weeks, it’s not even good. Rousey or no Rousey, it needed to be sold, and the women’s champion was having a hard time on her own with an opponent so disinterested in making a sale.
Cummins has done that, at least to the extent one could call reasonable. He’s had a short time to work, sold himself well and made it evident that he and Cormier aren’t going to be pals when the cage door closes on Saturday night.
The fight itself is almost irrelevant for the UFC, because it got more than it ever bargained for by signing Cummins. He’s no Rashad Evans, but in a totally different way, he might prove more valuable this weekend.
UFC 170 hits pay-per-view on Saturday night with a five-fight main card. Ronda Rousey defends her title against fellow Olympian Sara McMann while Daniel Cormier takes on his newfound nemesis Pat Cummins in the co-main event.
The rest of the main card i…
UFC 170 hits pay-per-view on Saturday night with a five-fight main card. Ronda Rousey defends her title against fellow Olympian Sara McMann while Daniel Cormier takes on his newfound nemesis Pat Cummins in the co-main event.
The rest of the main card is rounded out with a series of welterweight bouts, including a competitive scrap between Rory MacDonald and Demian Maia.
Here are some predictions on how these fights, and the rest, will end.
Tonight’s UFC 170 card poses a lot of intriguing questions: Is Ronda Rousey‘s striking *really* “the best in the game?” Can a last second injury in your co-main event be used as a legal justification for homicide? What is a Yosdenis Cedeno, exactly?
Here to “intelligently” “debate” at least one of those questions are CagePotato staff writers Jared Jones and Seth Falvo, so join them after the jump to get the inside scoop on all things UFC 170-related.
So what happens if Sara McMann actually wins on Saturday night?
JJ: Simple: Dana White dissolves the women’s bantamweight division, cancels TUF 20, and bans any MMA outlet that dares question his decision. MWAHAHAHAHA!!
Seriously though, there is no scenario in which a Rousey loss doesn’t equal an immediate rematch. I don’t care if McMann takes Rousey down in the first 5 seconds, annihilates her with ground-n-pound and then armbars her, we are getting an immediate rematch. This whole “WMMA in the UFC” thing all hinges on Rousey being the champ, right? Because I’m pretty sure that Dana White has been completely transparent about that fact since Day 1.
Tonight’s UFC 170 card poses a lot of intriguing questions: Is Ronda Rousey‘s striking *really* “the best in the game?” Can a last second injury in your co-main event be used as a legal justification for homicide? What is a Yosdenis Cedeno, exactly?
Here to “intelligently” “debate” at least one of those questions are CagePotato staff writers Jared Jones and Seth Falvo, so join them after the jump to get the inside scoop on all things UFC 170-related.
So what happens if Sara McMann actually wins on Saturday night?
JJ: Simple: Dana White dissolves the women’s bantamweight division, cancels TUF 20, and bans any MMA outlet that dares question his decision. MWAHAHAHAHA!!
Seriously though, there is no scenario in which a Rousey loss doesn’t equal an immediate rematch. I don’t care if McMann takes Rousey down in the first 5 seconds, annihilates her with ground-n-pound and then armbars her, we are getting an immediate rematch. This whole “WMMA in the UFC” thing all hinges on Rousey being the champ, right? Because I’m pretty sure that Dana White has been completely transparent about that fact since Day 1.
SF: If McMann wins, we’re getting three things: A rematch, an extremely exaggerated (if not completely fabricated) story about the personal demons that Ronda Rousey was fighting before UFC 170, and we’re all getting blamed for them in some way, shape or form. The rematch will serve as the co-main event of UFC 173: Weidman vs. Belfort, which will get moved to Brazil for some reason. Hey, it’ll be a strange UFC if McMann wins, I says.
SF: You know what, I’m going to take the extremely unpopular stance and say that yes, it is. On paper, it’s a squash match between the number one contender and some random guy from Twitter, yes, but aren’t those fights usually fun? Of course they are. Besides, no matter who wins this fight, the UFC can still continue their whole “XX is the future of the division!” campaign, right? That’s a lot more than we would have been able to say if Cormier vs. Sonnen was booked…
JJ: I’ll give you that Cormier vs. Cummins is a better fight than Cormier vs. Sonnen, but the best we could ask for? Nah, son.
While I loved the idea of giving Cummins a shot at his “Rocky” moment when the fight was first announced – the unpredictability of MMA, after all, is one of the most intriguing aspects of the sport – I also fell back on the idea that there were plenty of unbooked, proven UFC fighters who had a lot more to offer Cormier than a story about that time they made him cry in training camp. In short, I agreed with Ben Askren’s take on the situation and felt weird inside because of it.
Upon looking over the UFC’s current list of light heavyweight fighters, however, I found that nearly everyone in the division either has a fight booked already, are coming off a loss (or multiple losses), are injured or retired, or just signed with the promotion. In fact, there is literally one guy who doesn’t fit into any of the above categories: Rafael Cavalcante. The former Strikeforce champion just steamrolled Igor Pokrajac at Fight Night 32, isn’t injured, and would make for a much more compelling reason to drop $50 on a PPV than some fabricated grudge match between an Olympian and a barista.
I give all the respect in the world to Cummins for accepting the fight, but have you even *seen* any of his fights? Dude is going to be ground into dog food inside of 3 minutes.
You have $20, and you need some horrific gambling advice. Go!
JJ: As one of our readers pointed out in the Gambling Enabler, a ten dollar bet on a McMann – Cummins – Maia parlay nets you over $1000 ($1,639 to be exact). I’ll double down on that bet and make a cool…uh…$4000.
SF: Maybe I’m just old-fashioned, but I prefer my terrible gambling advice to come from a real hack journalist, and not just some random guy from the comments section. Now then, if you’re looking for some horrific advice, then I’d suggest a Rousey/Cormier parlay. You’ll start sweating bullets if either fight makes it past the first minute, and your twenty dollars will only return a whopping $5.71 in profit from BetUS.com. Talk about not being worth the (almost non-existent) risk.
Now, if your idea of horrific gambling advice involved asking me for genuine advice as a way to mock me, then know that I decided to parlay my grad school alma mater UL-Lafayette’s men’s basketball team covering the spread against Troy (which they did) with Rory MacDonald defeating Demian Maia. I will use my winnings to put a picture of me holding my thumbs up on the trunks of a Hip Show competitor, “Ravishing” Rick Rude style.
Take your best guess as to what the PPV numbers for UFC 170 will look like.
JJ: Without launching into the same discussion about oversaturation, quantity over quality and “garbage-asses” that we’ve all had a thousand times, I will say that UFC 170 is a “tough sell” to both casual and hardcore MMA fans. While the UFC of days past would have taken the best matchups from Fight Night 36 (mainly, Machida vs. Mousasi) and UFC 170 and combined them into one stacked card actually worthy of my purchase, we are living in the era of “World Fucking Domination,” which this weekend will equate to less than 300,000 PPV buys. Ronda Rousey may be the quote unquote “ biggest star the UFC has ever had,” but UFC 170 will offer evidence to the contrary.
Seriously though, how great would it be if UFC 170 had Lyoto Machida, Gegard Mousasi, and Jacare Souza to support it? Maybe then the UFC wouldn’t have to shop for fighters at the Starbucks drive-thru to justify charging us $50 for a garbage-ass (sorry, I had to) pay-per-view. One can only dream…(*gazes out window and tosses back whiskey*)
SF: So, remember when “I predict a card with a title fight and three Olympians will draw less than 500k buys” would have actually sounded stupid? And not in a “Well no shit, dumbass” sort of way, but in a “You must be high out of your damn mind” way? Oh man, those were the days when…hang on… (*swings open front door and yells at hoodlums skateboarding on MY sidewalk*)
If only to keep this column from being us agreeing with each other while occasionally hi-fiving, I’ll say that this card draws more than 300k buys. But not more than 350k buys, because what sort of contrarian asshole do you think I am?
SF: Maia had this locked up the second I bet money on MacDonald, because I am not allowed to have nice things.
JJ: Although Maia has looked outstanding at welterweight, save his most recent fight with Shields, I gotta go with the “future of the welterweight division” in this one. We (the “MMA media”) have been riding MacDonald’s jock ever since he entered the UFC, and the pressure on “Ares” to finally achieve his potential is more intense than ever. Against a high-profile fighter and former middleweight title challenger like Maia, methinks MacDonald is going to show the flashes of brilliance he did against Condit and Penn and remind us all why he’s still an elite member of the division with plenty of years ahead of him. Rory might not send Maia into a full-on tailspin in the opening frame like Nate Marquardt did, but he’ll get the job done.
Make one wild prediction for the UFC 170 undercard.
JJ: All 6 fights go to decision, and all but 2 of them are completely forgotten about as soon as the judges scores are announced. I know, it’s not exactly a “wild” prediction given the past couple events, but when more people on the undercard *don’t* have a Wikipedia page than those who do, you can probably expect more of the same sloppy sparring matches we’ve been treated to in recent weeks.
SF: We’re talking about the undercard now? Take it away, Green Bastard…
My wild prediction is that someone might actually disagree with me. Someone who isn’t related to either fighter. Wild, huh?
This is what happens when you let your mouth write a check your Octagon skills can’t cash.
