It’s been four years since anyone other than Jon Jones held the UFC light heavyweight title, but a new chapter in the division began at UFC 187 on Saturday night.
After legal troubles forced the promotion to strip the pound-for-pound phenom of his long-held title and an indefinite suspension took him out of his bout with Anthony Johnson, there was a sudden shift in the landscape of the 205-pound ranks. Where Rumble was already lined up for a championship opportunity, Daniel Cormier became the fortunate recipient of a rare second chance to compete for the light heavyweight strap that eluded him at UFC 182 back in January.
There was history to be made Saturday night in Las Vegas, and anticipation was high to see if it would be Johnson’s devastating knockout power or Cormier’s outstanding wrestling pedigree that made the difference. With a new champion to be crowned and potential redemption hovering over the main event tilt, the stakes were high.
Despite early adversity, it was Cormier’s night to shine.
Even though Rumble floored Cormier in the opening seconds of the fight, the Louisiana native weathered the storm and implemented his wrestling-heavy game plan. The Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix winner closed the distance at every possible opportunity and was able to control the Team Blackzilians powerhouse on the canvas.
Once Cormier got in the driver’s seat, he never let off the gas and ground out Johnson until he secured the rear-naked choke in the third round to become the new UFC light heavyweight champion.
While the light heavyweight title was settled in the premier bout on the card, there was also business to be settled atop the middleweight collective. Chris Weidman and Vitor Belfort had been circling each other for more than a year, and on Saturday night the champion and challenger stepped into the Octagon with the 185-pound crown on the line.
The tension between the two men hit a fever pitch at the pre-fight weigh-ins on Friday, with Weidman stating he was going to make The Phenom pay for cheating allegations that have continued to follow the Brazilian knockout artist throughout the most recent chapter of his career.
There was no more talking once the co-main event bout got underway, and it was a shootout for as long as it lasted. Belfort rocked Weidman early with a flurry of big shots, but The All-American stunted the surge with a perfectly timed takedown. Once the action hit the mat, it was all Weidman as he pounded out the stoppage from full mount midway through the opening frame to retain his middleweight crown.
Let’s take a look at all the insanity that went into the good, bad and strange from UFC 187.
The Good
Redemption is a difficult thing to find in combat sports because there is no guarantee a second chance is ever going to come around. Daniel Cormier made the most of his second opportunity to become champion, and his diligence and determination helped him weather the storm to derail Anthony Johnson to become the new titleholder in the 205-pound division.
While Johnson’s power appeared as if it was going to end things early, Cormier found his way through the onslaught and used his wrestling to turn the tide of the fight in his favor. With DC being a two-time former Olympic wrestler, his grappling was simply too much for Johnson to handle, and the Florida transplant wilted under the pressure.
Johnson was in desperation mode going into the third round and stayed that way until Cormier locked on the fight-ending rear-naked choke to secure the victory.
With his goal now reached and the light heavyweight championship around his waist, Cormier will now set his sights on redemption of a different kind. Jon Jones is the only man to defeat him inside the Octagon, and there is no doubt Bones will be looking to reclaim his title when his suspension is lifted. That sets the stage for a highly anticipated rematch, and it was all made possible by Cormier’s gritty performance at UFC 187.
*** The lack of recognition Chris Weidman has received since becoming middleweight champion may be coming to an end after his performance Saturday night. The undefeated champion who had twice bested Anderson Silva and beat former light heavyweight titleholder Lyoto Machida added another Brazilian legend to his resume.
He pummeled Vitor Belfort to retain his crown at UFC 187. It was another impressive performance for Weidman and one where he showed yet again he can handle adversity inside the Octagon.
While the Serra-Longo standout wanted to take the fight to the canvas from the onset, Belfort was able to keep the fight standing and put some punishment on the New York native. Weidman was rocked by several big shots, but he kept his composure and hit a takedown when he needed it the most.
Once he had top position, Weidman rained down elbows and punches until referee Herb Dean stepped in to stop the fight. With the win, he has three successful title defenses and will be waiting for Luke Rockhold or Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza, depending on who gets the call.
*** No fighter on the current lightweight roster is hotter than Donald Cerrone right now. Cowboy was originally slated to put his seven-fight winning streak on the line against Khabib Nurmagomedov at UFC 187, but when the undefeated Dagestani fell out due to injury, the Colorado native had a decision to make.
In typical Cerrone fashion he chose to remain on the card and fought Canadian powerhouse John Makdessi. In a fight where there was little to gain, Cerrone still showed up and did his thing, as he scored a blistering head-kick knockout in the final round to pick up his eighth consecutive victory.
While Makdessi wasn’t ranked in the upper tier of the crowded lightweight fold, that detail doesn’t really matter at this point. What does is the fact Cerrone has been cutting like a buzz saw through top-level competition.
The logical next step is a shot at Rafael dos Anjos. RDA won their first meeting back in 2013, but that loss ignited something fierce in the hard-charging striker, and the time is now for Cerrone to get his long-awaited shot at the UFC lightweight strap.
*** Seven years ago Andrei Arlovski and the UFC parted ways. In his time away from the sport’s biggest stage, The Pit Bull experienced a mixture of success and failure, which left many doubting whether or not his best days were behind him.
They’re not.
Arlovski not only proved he’s still one of the best heavyweights in the world but he’s also able to put out the most dangerous strikers on the planet. The Belarusian striker put a beating on Travis Browne in one of the most action-packed first rounds to ever go down in the heavyweight division.
Arlovski rocked the lengthy Hawaiian early and often but just couldn’t put Hapa away. And just when it seemed as if Arlovski was going to seal the deal, Browne unleashed a big shot that put the Jackson/Winkeljohn-trained fighter on the canvas.
Then as Browne tried to finish, Arlovski found his bearings and swung the fight back in his favor. He was able to finish the fight with a flurry against the cage to pick up his third straight victory inside the Octagon and secure one of the most exciting performances of his storied career in the process.
*** With four of the top-ranked flyweights competing at UFC 187, the pressure was on for the little guys to not only win but to perform in such a fashion where the next title shot would be the reward. While John Dodson and Zach Makovsky had a solid bout that was heavy on mutual respect, Joseph Benavidez and John Moraga went at it like there was a stolen bike involved.
The Team Alpha Male representative and the MMA Lab product let the leather fly fast and furious throughout the 15-minute affair. When the final bell sounded, it was Benavidez who took the nod on the judges’ scorecards to pick up his third consecutive victory and take a strong step back to another title opportunity.
*** Getting back to his winning ways was the primary objective for Dong Hyun Kim at UFC 187, and he accomplished that in strong fashion. Stun Gun locked up with a game Josh Burkman and was able to put The People’s Warrior away with an arm-triangle choke in the third round.
While the savvy veteran rocked the South Korean judoka in the stand-up game on occasion, Kim’s grappling was simply too much for Burkman to handle. With the win, Kim has now found success in five of his last six outings and will remain a staple in the elite level of the welterweight division.
*** The bad blood was pumping in the bout between Rafael Natal and Uriah Hall, but it was Sapo who took the fight on the scorecards. While Prime Time came out sharp and aggressive to win the opening round, the Renzo Gracie-trained fighter got his grappling game working in the second.
It was anyone’s fight going into the final frame, and Natal was able to push the action as Hall’s gas tank faded. Although the fight was close and the split-decision victory was debatable, Natal will return to Brazil a notch up in what is sure to be an ongoing feud.
*** Some amazing talent has come out of Dagestan as of late, and Islam Makhachev became the latest to make a splash on the sport’s biggest stage at UFC 187. The 23-year-old American Kickboxing Academy representative made an impressive debut by dominating Leo Kuntz until he ended the bout via rear-naked choke in the second round.
Makhachev’s lopsided victory not only kept his undefeated record intact but also made a strong statement that he’s going to be a solid addition to the already deep lightweight ranks.
*** After suffering back-to-back losses inside the Octagon, Justin Scoggins’ flyweight prospect card was in serious jeopardy. Granted, those setbacks came against top-level competition, but if the South Carolina native was going to retain any of the hype that surrounded him upon arriving to the UFC, then he needed to get back into the win column on Saturday. That’s exactly what he accomplished, using his full offensive arsenal to best Josh Sampo on the preliminary portion of the card to earn his third victory in the UFC.
The Bad
The prospect label has a shelf life in mixed martial arts, and that is a reality Travis Browne is living in after Saturday night.
The talented Hawaiian striker surged through the heavyweight ranks by leveling his competition in brutal fashion and appeared to be the next big thing in the heavyweight division. That said, a devastating knockout at the hands of Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva starched that run, and he was forced to regather and regroup.
Browne bounced back in strong fashion by putting together a solid three-fight winning streak and was poised once again to break through into title contention until Fabricio Werdum battered him for three rounds at UFC on Fox 11 in April 2014.
Yet, with Browne’s obvious talent and the heavyweight collective thin on contenders, there was still room for him to fulfill his potential and become a contender. A victory over Brendan Schaub in December served to bolster that notion, and he came into his bout at UFC 187 against Andrei Arlovski seemingly only one win away from a title opportunity.
While The Pit Bull came into the bout with some momentum of his own, the bout had the feeling it was Browne’s moment to shine against a former champion.
Nevertheless, the end result was anything but that, as Arlovski scored a first-round knockout in violent fashion. In what was one of the craziest and chaotic displays of scrapping to ever go down in the heavyweight division, Browne was caught early and never truly recovered. Although he leveled the Belarusian with a bomb of his own, the two-time former champion regained his composure and put Browne away shortly thereafter.
While his loss at UFC 187 won’t send him tumbling down the divisional hierarchy, it will make it hard for Browne to recover the buzz that once surrounded him.
Another fighter who knows about expectations is Uriah Hall. The New York-based knockout artist created a monster buzz on Season 17 of The Ultimate Fighter, and in those circumstances, any and all errors are going to be magnified.
That was certainly the case when Hall dropped his first two official bouts under the UFC banner, as it seemed every bit of hype surrounding the Jamaican-born striker had been deflated. Nevertheless, he was able to bounce back and notch three consecutive victories, but his bout with Rafael Natal on Saturday night came at a crucial juncture of his career.
UFC 187 was Hall’s opportunity to prove he is ready to face the next level of talent in the middleweight fold, but coming out on the business end of a split-decision loss will do him zero favors in that regard.
While the fight was close and the decision could have gone either way, Hall’s lack of urgency as the fight hit the homestretch was apparent. He had the speed advantage in the matchup, but that all but evaporated when his gas tank started to deplete in the third round.
While his loss on Saturday night won’t do any major damage to his current standing in the 185-pound fold, the dialogue in regard to his failure to meet expectations will amplify. Hall’s skills and talent are obvious to anyone who has seen him fight, but his continued failure to fight a complete bout from start to finish will haunt him.
The Strange
With the Jones incident kicking open the strange vault before UFC 187 even got underway, the expectations were high for some unusual happenings to take place Saturday night in Las Vegas. That notion was validated in the hours leading up to the event when Nina Ansaroff fell victim to an unfortunate flu virus that led to her bout with Rose Namajunas being cancelled.
Having to pull out of the bout put the cap on what was already a bad trip to Nevada for the 29-year-old strawweight. She came in four pounds over the allowed weight limit at Friday’s weigh-ins, which cost her 20 percent of her fight purse under the guidelines of the Nevada State Athletic Commission. The Florida native made no attempt to cut any further weight and willingly handed over a chunk of her earnings to Namajunas.
While the UFC has its consistency issues in other areas when it comes to disciplining fighters, one avenue the promotion has never took kindly to is missing weight. The events that took place in the lead-up to UFC 187 are a bad look for Ansaroff, who was attempting to get back into the win column after losing to Juliana Lima in her promotional debut back in November.
And even though the strange was thin for the majority of the undercard for UFC 187, it doubled up in the bout between John Dodson and Zach Makovsky.
With The Magician and the Firas Zahabi-trained fighter both in the hunt for the next shot at Demetrious Johnson’s flyweight title, the action was figured to be full throttle from start to finish. Yet, since the fighters are friends and have trained together in the past, there was also the potential there would be plenty of shared smiles and “bro hugs” given throughout the fight.
And on that front there was no disappointment. While there were solid stretches of action between the former title challenger and the former Bellator champion, the bout also appeared to be a sparring session at times. The biggest supporting element to this notion came when Dodson extended his hand to help Makovsky off the canvas, where Fun Size was fending off the Albuquerque, New Mexico, native’s power shots just moments earlier.
While there doesn’t have to be bad blood between fighters to make things exciting, when there is too much respect or a personal relationship connecting them, it erases the prospect of something ferocious happening inside the Octagon.
Even though Dodson took the victory on the judges’ scorecards to mark a successful return to action following a knee injury that kept him on the shelf for nearly a year, it may not have been enough to secure another crack at Mighty Mouse in his next outing.
Then again, with the lack of depth in the flyweight ranks, Dodson well could have secured the second title shot he’s been chasing since Johnson bested him at UFC on Fox 6 back in January 2013. It’s also quite possible the UFC is trying to get fight fans to get behind Olympic gold medalist Henry Cejudo by showing his face in places he doesn’t even belong.
Perhaps someone in the production truck will get that timeout John Makdessi was trying to call in his fight.
Duane Finley is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report. All quotes are obtained firsthand unless noted otherwise.
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