Tag: UFC 192

UFC’s run of strong pay-per-view lineups continues on Saturday at UFC 192 with a main event featuring light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier defending his belt against Alexander Gustafsson. 

There was a late-developing story for the pay-per-view involving the semi-main event match between Tyron Woodley and Johny Hendricks. UFC president Dana White announced the welterweight showdown has been taken off the card due to Hendricks’ issues cutting weight. 

While that does diminish the overall power of the card, Woodley ends up benefiting in the end, as Kevin Iole of Yahoo Sports reported White will give Woodley the next welterweight title shot after the Robbie Lawler-Carlos Condit matchup. 

The championship match has been in the works for some time and should take place at UFC 191, but Cormier suffered a knee injury that pushed it back by four weeks. It’s not a long delay, though it’s one that has allowed anticipation to build. 

Gustafsson is an interesting challenger for the title since he’s ranked behind Anthony Johnson, who defeated the Swedish star by a first-round knockout in January, in the official light heavyweight rankings on UFC.com. 

Yet this is also a perfect opportunity for Gustafsson to prove he’s more than a good fighter who will come up short in major matches. It hasn’t happened yet in his career, but the 28-year-old will get another chance to change the narrative around his career on Saturday. 

 

Fighter to Watch: Shawn Jordan

There are certain fighters who provide value, despite not having a ceiling that will put them into championship contention. 

Shawn Jordan falls into that category, because he can be as entertaining to watch as any heavyweight UFC currently has on the roster. This is how his last seven fights have gone:

There is something to be said for having a fighter who will simply go all-out in an effort to score a quick knockout, even if it leaves him vulnerable to being knocked out himself. 

In Jordan’s last fight against Derrick Lewis, there was an incredible finish to the bout that played out like something from a WWE match, via UFC on FOX:

Shawn Michaels never delivered a kick to someone’s chin at WrestleMania that looked as good as Jordan’s. He is going to make Saturday’s bout with Ruslan Magomedov, who is more methodical and willing to fight for the judges’ scorecard, as fun as anything that will happen on Saturday. 

 

Main Event Prediction

Cormier comes into Saturday’s fight with Gustafsson as a heavy favorite, which he should be. After Johnson defeated Gustafsson, Cormier took care of him at UFC 187 to win the vacant light heavyweight title. 

Gustafsson presents interesting physical challenges for Cormier. The 28-year-old is 6’5″ and has a 79-inch reach, giving him a six-inch height advantage and seven-inch reach advantage over the champion. 

Yet Cormier never seems to be fazed taking on bigger opponents. He was giving up eight inches in reach against Johnson, took a huge right hand early in the fight and still won in impressive fashion with a third-round submission. 

B/R’s senior MMA analyst, Patrick Wyman, noted in his breakdown of the fight that Cormier is able to make his size work to his advantage despite lacking true knockout power:

He is a competent, meat-and-potatoes striker. Two- and three-punch combinations follow behind the jab, and he is comfortable both moving forward and on the counter, though he prefers the former. While he has knockouts on his record, he is not a terribly powerful puncher on the feet.

If this fight turns into a hand-to-hand battle, Gustafsson has the clear edge. Fortunately, Cormier is more versatile, and his specialty is as a mat technician. 

Gustafsson also has to deal with the fact that no one has any idea what he really is as a fighter. There’s no question about the raw talent, but he’s like a top draft pick who gets by on that potential without really developing. 

It was even a brief point of trash talk for Cormier in the lead up to the fight, per Jeff Wagenheim of Sports Illustrated.

“Alex, Alex, Alex, just tell them,” Cormier said. “Just tell them, Alex: Your greatest performance was not a loss. Tell them about your big wins.”

That’s a reference to Gustafsson’s star-making effort against Jon Jones, which came in a loss. Looking at his resume of three losses, one was in a title fight, and the loss against Johnson was supposed to be a No. 1 contender bout. 

Gustafsson has acknowledged those past defeats can get to him, telling Elias Cepeda of Fox Sports there’s always a “what if?” aspect to any loss. 

“What I did wrong, what I could do different, what I should have done. I didn’t take the initiative in that fight. I was a slow starter, which is not usually me. I broke it down to the details,” Gustafsson said.

Getting over past defeats isn’t necessarily what Saturday represents for Gustafsson, as long as he takes lessons from those recent efforts to get over the hump. He’s certainly got the power and precision to knock Cormier down. 

The only problem is Cormier does such a good job of controlling the tempo of a fight, so Gustafsson will have to fight out of his comfort zone. That’s been a problem in the past and doesn’t seem likely to change this weekend. 

Ultimately, Cormier is the most talented fighter in the light heavyweight division until Jones returns. He’s a deserving champion and will prove it once again at UFC 192. 

Prediction: Cormier via Third-Round Submission

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Another chapter in the long saga of Jon Jones’ absence from ultimate fighting comes Saturday night, and it will be telling, as Daniel Cormier aims to defend his status as the light heavyweight champion against Alexander Gustafsson.

While the shadow of Jones lurks over this fight, similar to past light-heavyweight encounters, this one has an added feel of intrigue and suspense. That’s because a long legal issue could be nearing its end, as the UFC released a statement, acknowledging that they will thoroughly review Jones’ recent plea agreement before reinstating him. 

That means that the winner of Saturday’s fight could in all likelihood be Jones’ next opponent, should he be reinstated accordingly. As if this battle needed any more sizzle, it got some in the days leading up to fight night.

 

Cormier vs. Gustafsson Odds

 

Tale of the Tape

 

Cormier vs. Gustafsson

Once again, it’s a larger, more powerful striker stepping into the octagon to threaten Cormier’s case for a rematch against Jones—the only man to beat him in the UFC.

In May, it was Anthony “Rumble” Johnson, who earned his shot at Cormier after toppling Gustafsson in a January first-round victory. The 36-year-old dispatched of him accordingly, committing a third-round TKO that allowed him to retain the belt.

The Swede’s loss to Johnson—a foe Cormier just beat—would seem like a death sentence, but it’s not.

The main reason why is that Gustafsson contains the power in his hands that Johnson—or any other fighter in the weight class, arguably—cannot boast. It’s why he was able to take Jones himself to the distance in a five-round slugfest back in 2013 that provided one of the UFC’s most memorable fights in history.

Gustafsson and Cormier showed their respect for one another by shaking hands, but the camaraderie ended there as Bloody Elbow showed:

If Cormier wants to keep Gustafsson from that title belt that he’s come so close to winning, he’ll have to avoid letting his opponent establish his massive reach advantage.

As tends to be the case with Cormier, he’s out-reached by a whopping six inches. But unlike when he faced Johnson, Gustafsson has the power to put him down with a single punch.

Getting those punches onto Cormier’s chin isn’t the hard part, however. That comes in being able to make them count and take Cormier to the ground.

If Gustafsson isn’t able to do that, Cormier will inevitably establish his ground-and-pound fighting style, wearing his opponent out with relentless wrestling and timely strikes. 

Of course, Gustafsson has the stamina and the will that Johnson didn’t prove to have against Cormier. That should have this fight going the distance easily, as Gustafsson has proven practically impossible to knockout by an opponent who doesn’t possess deadly hands.

His determination will keep it relatively close, but Gustafsson just doesn’t have the overall ability to keep up with Cormier for five rounds. He may hang, but he won’t win.

Prediction: Cormier wins via unanimous decision

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Daniel Cormier gets another chance to prove his right to call himself UFC light heavyweight champion. Even though some won’t give him that title until he defeats Jon Jones, he could make quite the statement Saturday night at UFC 192 against Alexander Gustafsson.

The 36-year-old Cormier hasn’t looked slowed by his age in recent fights, stepping up to take a stranglehold over the weight class in the wake of Jones’ absence. But Gustafsson is one fighter in the class who knows what it takes in this immense of a fight, taking Jones himself to the brink in 2013 in what’s remembered as one of the best fights in UFC history.

Gustafsson and Cormier may not match up to produce that type of a contest, but it should still be a memorable one on the end of a high-flying fight card. Even with Johny Hendricks’ title fight against Tyrone Woodley scratched due to Hendricks’ weight problems, Saturday night is still flush with high-flying matchups.

Let’s take a look at them below before predicting the main event.

 

UFC 192 Full Card

 

UFC 192 Viewing Info

Main Card Time (ET): 10 p.m.

PPV: HBO

Live Stream: Ordering available at UFC.tv

 

Cormier vs. Gustafsson

Cormier has been in this position before, against a fighter of a similar breed. But even so, the current champion is going to have his hands—and chin—full with the immense striking ability of his opponent.

Gustafsson is one of the most feared strikers in the light heavyweight class, arguably boasting a more defined game and more dangerous hands than Jones himself. He’s proven that, taking Jones to the brink of defeat and battling some of the best in the division.

As for Cormier, he’s dealt with similar tasks before—even recently. His latest outing was a third-round TKO of Anthony Johnson in May, the man who toppled Gustafsson five months prior in a first-round win.

Even though Gustafsson didn’t reign supreme in that fight, that’s not to suggest he doesn’t have a chance against Cormier. 

In fact, the Swedish phenom has the power to not only take advantage of his reach, but to also punish Cormier in the process as Jonathan Snowden of Bleacher Report observed:

Cormier showed the ability to close the distance against Johnson, but he did get punished pretty severely in the process. Up until a third round that saw Johnson completely gassed and worn out, he was in position to make it a five-round slugfest.

Gustafsson has the stamina and the endurance that Johnson doesn’t, to be able to deal with Cormier‘s style in a way that Johnson could not. For that reason, it’s impossible to overlook Gustafsson like so many have in recent fights.

With that being said, it’s also impossible to ignore the amount of beating Gustafsson has taken over the last couple of years—and how that will impact Saturday’s fight.

In two of Gustafsson‘s last five fights, he’s taken a severe amount of damage. It started with a pair of wins over Mauricio Rua and Thiago Silva that went the distance, before his bloody loss to Jones that kept him out for six months.

“The Mauler” has had over nine months to recover from his loss to Johnson, and he’ll be better for it. But that doesn’t mean he’ll be able to hang with Cormier for five rounds.

Well, hanging with him won’t be the issue, but doing enough over the 25 minutes to sway the judges will be too much to ask. Cormier is simply too sound in his style and can’t be picked apart by anyone in the weight class not named Jones.

Prediction: Cormier wins via unanimous decision

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