Daniel Cormier has indeed validated himself as one of MMA's top stars Saturday night at UFC 192. DC bested Alexander Gustafsson in and fantastic 5 round contest which left both combatants battered and exhausted. Cormier made use of an excellent clinch on the back of Gustafsson's head to hit repeated blows. Early on in the first rd DC landed an impressive slam from a high crotch that will definitely be on the highlight reels for years to come however Gustafsson came back strong in the 2nd rd with a pair of takedowns. The 3rd round things got fairly wild as Cormier was cruising to winning the round however Gustafsson nailed a helliacious knee that sent DC reeling to the floor. The fifth rd seemed like it could possibly have been the deciding round at the time and the Champion came out just a little stronger in getting his win.
In the Co-Main Event Ryan Bader beat Rashad Evans via Unanimous Decision. Bader exhibited his much refined stand up in route to his 5th straight victory. Bader utilized his jab magnificently, sweeling shut Evans right eye with it, and also landed a very slick right shovel uppercut that was getting through Evans defense. This was Evans 1st match since beating Chael Sonnen way back at UFC 167 and that was roughly 2 yrs previously. Bader has built himself as a top 3 light heavy weight these days and might possibly be next in line to face UFC Champion Daniel Cormier.
The rest of the card had several KNOCKOUT finishes, rising stars and some real boring fights. The fight between Juliana Pena and Jessica Eye proved that women's Mixed Martial Arts is still way behind the guys. Despite the great heart shown by both of these ladies there ground game was incredibly clumsy and Pena actually challenged Ronda Rousey after her victory. Pena would get arm barred extremely quickly against Rousey if she does not improve her Jiu-Jitsu. The flyweight contest between Joseph Benavidez and Ali Bagutinov nearly put me to sleep and was booed at the end by the audience at the Toyota Center. This fight did not help the notion of the flyweight division being a truly uninteresting division. In the contest between Ruslan Magomedov and Shawn Jordan, Ruslan might just have put himself in the top TEN of the weight class with an excellent victory. Ruslan picked Jordan apart for all 3 rds in way to a unanimous decision win. The most notable match of the Prelims was in all likelihood the coming out of Sage Northcutt who demolished Francisco Trevino in just 57 seconds.
