Daniel Cormier successfully defended his light-heavyweight title against Anthony Johnson tonight at UFC 210 with a second round submission finish.
Round One:
The main event light-heavyweight title fight is underway in New York!
Push kick for Johnson to start. Now another to the body again. A two-piece combo lands for him. Cormier looks to retaliate and lands an overhand right. Hard leg kick for Johnson.
Johnson surprises Cormier by going for a takedown against the cage. He’s not going to get it, but he keeps pressing DC into the fence. Strange tactic from Rumble here.
Johnson almost gets DC down, but he posts and remains on his feet. Johnson going for the takedown again, but Cormier stuffs it and as they get back up it’s DC who is now in the domimant position, pushing the challenger up against the cage.
Cormier happy to just wear Rumble down from the clinch. Headlock for the champion now and then tries for a single, but Johnson lands a knee to the body.
Johnson able to break free for a moment and tries to land punches then tries a head kick from close range. Cormier back into the clinch, but soon after the ref opts to separate them.
At striking range Rumble is immediately dangerous and lands a knee, a couple of punches and then a kick upstairs that DC partially ducks into.
Cormier might have been hurt by that, but oddly Rumble is again opting to go into the clinch against the cage. He lands a takedown just as the buzzer sounds.
Round Two:
Kick upstairs from Cormier to start the second round. Johnson looking for kicks and punches, but as starts to get loose Cormier goes for a single and drives Johnson to the cage.
Cormier roughing Rumble up against the cage, looking to drain his cardio. Johnson able to reverse the position and rather than break free he goes for the takedown on the wrestler and lands it.
Cormier quickly back upright and he’ll be hoping all this wrestling work will be tiring out Johnson’s questionable gas tank.
DC goes for a takedown and lands it. This is a bad spot for Johnson as Cormier gets the back and then starts to blast him with ground and pound.
Rumble’s wilting here as he did in their first fight and DC picks his moment to go for the rear-naked choke, sinks it in with little resistance and forces the challenger to tap at 3.37mins of the second round.
There’s a shock end to the night, as after the decision is read out Anthony Johnson reveals that he’s decided to retire.
At 33 years of age that feels premature and despite disappointment over the way the fight ended tonight it feels like he’s still got a lot to offer in the UFC, but it seems that his mind is made up and he plans to move on to a job outside of MMA.
As for DC, he’s over the moon with his win and has animated exchanges with both Jon Jones and Jimi Manuwa who are cage-side as he celebrates.
