Daniel Cormier might have been robbed of his opportunity to test himself against Jon Jones, but he still beat a fighter with a case to be considered the greatest of all time at UFC 200. The light heavyweight champion defeated Anderson Silva via unanimous decision on Saturday.
MMAJunkie tweeted out the scorecards for the lopsided decision:
#UFC200 results: Daniel Cormier def. Anderson Silva via unanimous decision (30-26, 30-26, 30-26) https://t.co/u7vu3O1sZD
— MMAjunkie (@MMAjunkie) July 10, 2016
DC wasted no time in dragging Silva to the ground. The light heavyweight utilized his size and wrestling advantage within the first minute and began employing ground-and-pound while working into half-guard.
With Silva giving up plenty of weight to the former heavyweight Cormier, he simply had no answer to the top control of the champion. Fox Sports: UFC noted the lopsided nature of the first frame:
Dominant first round for Daniel Cormier. Took Silva down and pretty much controlled him from there#UFC200
— FOX Sports: UFC (@UFCONFOX) July 10, 2016
The second round was more of the same from Cormier, as he opted to grind out The Spider in typical DC fashion rather than risk anything in stand-up exchanges. However, the end of the round saw a few exchanges in which Silva landed some strikes, but Cormier quickly closed the distance and clinched against the cage soon thereafter.
Cormier's top game proved to rule the day as the fight progressed into the final round. Silva did have a moment of hope in the third round when he landed a vicious kick to Cormier's body that seemed to do damage; however, it was too little, too late, as Cormier clearly won all three rounds and coasted to the unanimous decision.
Damon Martin of Fox Sports looked ahead to what might be next for the champion:
Daniel Cormier fought smart, got the win. Now he's probably waiting for the winner of Rumble/Glover#UFC200
— Damon Martin (@DamonMartin) July 10, 2016
Whether Cormier would have the opportunity to fight on the historic card was up in the air down to the last second. The UFC removed Jones from the card just two days prior to the action for a "potential Anti-Doping Policy violation," per an official release.
Cormier was devastated by the news, and MMAJunkie passed along a video of a distraught DC addressing the media afterward:
After learning that Jon Jones was pulled from UFC 200, a devastated Daniel Cormier spoke with media in Las Vegas.https://t.co/n18o1YWfBP
— MMAjunkie (@MMAjunkie) July 7, 2016
Fortunately, Silva stepped in to save the day, and Cormier was still able to have at least some payoff for the work that he put in before UFC 200. Although Silva is hardly the opponent that Jones is at this point in his career, Cormier still had an opportunity to fight a former champion.
He certainly capitalized on the opportunity.
Leading up to the last-minute fight, Cormier acknowledged his admiration for Silva and the chance he was getting.
"The UFC did a fantastic job pulling something together on real short notice and getting me a fight with a guy that many consider the greatest fighter of all time," Cormier said, per Damon Martin of Fox Sports. "So this is a big moment for me in my career."
Still, Cormier awaits the day when he'll finally get his rematch against Jones.
"In terms of anger in regard to the Jones' situation, it's a legacy fight. It's one I have to get back, I'm a realist and I just want to get back the fight that I lost," Cormier said, per Martin. "Right now I'll have to wait for that."
That wait could be a while. According to MMAJunkie, Jones' B sample came back positive for the same substance that the first sample tested positive for, and he now faces up to a two-year suspension.
If that's the discipline Jones receives, Cormier will be 39 by the time Bones is able to come back to competition.
For now, what this means is that Cormier is truly the light heavyweight champion.
One could have argued previously that Cormier was holding Jones' belt because he never lost it in the cage. Given the severity of this infraction and the fact that Jones might not be back in the Octagon until 2018, Cormier is now the rightful claimant to the 205-pound throne.
