Daniel Cormier has certainly validated himself as being one of Mixed Martial Arts's premier stars Saturday evening at UFC 192. DC beat Alexander Gustafsson in and exciting 5 rd contest that left the two competitors battered and exhausted. Cormier took advantage of an excellent clinch on the back of Gustafsson's head in order to land repeated blows. Very early in the first round DC got an eye-popping slam from a high crotch that will certainly be on the highlights for years to come yet Gustafsson came back strong in the 2nd rd with a set of takedowns. The 3rd rd things got pretty wild as Cormier was cruising to securing the round however Gustafsson nailed a helliacious knee that sent DC teetering to the floor. The fifth rd seemed like it may have been the deciding rd at the time and the DC came out just a bit stronger and insuring his win.
The Co-Main event was initially intended to be a rather highly anticipated engagement between Johny Hendricks and Tyrone Woodly which was scrapped because of Hendricks being taken to the emergency room amid a failed weight cut. In the new Co-Main Bader might just have put himself right into title contention with a truly exceptional win over past UFC Champion Rashad Evans. Bader utilized a considerably sharpened stand up to an easy decision. Cormier may have found himself his next challenger on this card.
The rest of the card had some KO finishes, rising stars and some real terrible fights. The match between Juliana Pena and Jessica Eye showed that women's MMA is still way behind the men. In spite of the great heart displayed by both girls there Jiu-Jitsu was incredibly clumsy and Pena actually challenged Ronda Rousey after her victory. Pena would get caught extremely quickly against Rousey if she doesn't strengthen her ground game. The flyweight fight between Joseph Benavidez and Ali Bagutinov almost put me to bed and was jeered at the end by the audience at the Toyota Center. This match did not help the impression of the flyweight division being a pretty dull division. In the contest between Ruslan Magomedov and Shawn Jordan, Ruslan may have put himself in the top TEN of the weight class with an impressive win. Ruslan picked Jordan apart for all 3 rds in way to a unanimous decision win. The most significant contest of the Prelims was most likely the debut of Sage Northcutt who ravaged Francisco Trevino in just 57 seconds.
