With the division’s biggest star on the sideline and a thin crop of top-tier competitors, the Ultimate Fighting Championship needs to go the rematch route in order to sell its light heavyweight championship as a pay–per-view headline attraction.
Fortunately for the company, the rematch is intriguing as far as these things go, as champion Daniel Cormier of San Jose, California, will defend his title against Georgia’s Anthony “Rumble” Johnson in the main event of Saturday night’s UFC 210 at KeyBank Center in Buffalo, New York.
The first time out, Cormier (18-1) defeated Johnson in the main event of UFC 187 on May 23, 2015. The matchup filled the vacancy left by longtime former champion Jon Jones, who was stripped of the belt due to legal trouble.
It was a well-contested fight in which Cormier took the hardest shot that was offered by Johnson, who is pound-for-pound the heaviest hitter in the sport. He then rallied for a third-round submission victory.
Since the loss to Cormier, his only defeat in his past 13 fights, Johnson (22-5) has made all the right moves in getting back into title contention. He’s won his three fights since via knockout, the past two in 86 and 13 seconds.
And with Jones under USADA-mandated suspension over a tainted supplement until July, those credentials are as good as any to give “Rumble” another crack at the gold.
The first meeting came down to the stylistic question of whether Cormier, a former Olympic wrestler, had the wherewithal to take Johnson’s best shot and keep trucking, something few others have been able to do.
He did so, and thus, the question this time around is whether Johnson brings anything new to the table which could unseat Cormier.
There, the duo, who have mainly been cordial in the leadup to the fight, disagree.
“I’m definitely not the same fighter I was two years ago,” Johnson said. “Every day, every week, every month, every year I’m getting better and better. So, you’ll see a different guy out there the next time you see me fight.”
Cormier, however, doesn’t see where Johnson has evolved.
“I can make it easy and (outwrestle) him or I can just beat him up on the feet,” Cormier said. “I can do whatever I want. That’s the difference between him and I. He’s got one way to win the fight. I can win any way I choose to.”
The UFC put together a highly appealing co-feature bout for Saturday night, as former UFC middleweight champion Chris Weidman of Long Island takes on former Strikeforce light heavyweight champion Gegard Mousasi of the Netherlands in a pivotal 185-pound showdown.
Weidman (13-2) won his first 13 career fights, taking the championship from Anderson Silva in the process. But he took a beating from Luke Rockhold to lose the belt at UFC 194, then suffered a horrible knockout to Yoel Romero via flying knee at UFC 205. Mousasi (41-6-2), meanwhile, has won six of his past seven fights, but often did so on lower-profile cable TV and online streaming events. So he started an aggressive social media campaign to get a big-name opponent on a big show.
It worked, and now we’ve got a matchup between one fighter in Weidman who is looking to prove he’s still elite against an opponent eager to prove he belongs.
“I don’t see it as a threat, I see it as a challenge,” Weidman said. “I’ve got a tough guy in front of me who’s good in all areas, experienced guy who’s on a win streak. Something I’m not. I want to become the best in the world. I want to get that belt back and fighting a guy like Gegard Mousasi is just the type of guy I need to do it.”