Cormier holds onto title; Weidman falls
Daniel CormierIt was the second meeting for the two in the Octagon, with Cormier coming out the winner under similar circumstances at UFC 187 in May 2015 after having been knocked down by Johnson in the first round.
After the loss, Johnson announced his retirement in a what mixed martial arts website Sherdog.com described as "a bizarre post-fight speech."
It may have been a fitting ending to an event which saw some controversy regarding Cormier's earlier Friday weigh-in, where, at first, the former Oklahoma State All-American failed to make weight ... then returned to the official scale a few minutes later coming in under the 205-pound limit.
"It was crazy because I weighed in upstairs and I was like 'man, I'm OK, I can go down and do this.' Took a lot longer than normally but we figured we had it done," Cormier explained. "We went downstairs and the scale was weighing different. So I went in the back and they informed me that New York state rule is that you can actually re-weigh and if you don't make it, you have two hours to actually make the weight.
"So I started feeling pretty confident after that."
Prior to the Cormier-Johnson II main event, there was a controversial ending in the bout featuring former UFC middleweight champ Chris Weidman vs. Gegard Mousasi. The two-time NCAA All-American for Hofstra University suffered a TKO at 3:13 of Round Two but only after the match had been temporarily halted when Mousasi landed what the referee believed to be an illegal knee while Weidman had both hands on the canvas. Replays showed that Mousasi lifted Weidman's hand off the mat while landing the knee, making it legal.
Initially, Weidman was given a five-minute recovery period, but cageside physicians entered the Octagon and ruled that the Long Island native was unfit to continue. With that, Mousasi had his fifth consecutive victory, while Weidman suffered his third straight defeat, falling to 13-3.
Wrestlers perfect in preliminaries
Former college wrestlers went 4-0 in preliminary bouts at UFC 210.
The first one-time wrestler to enter the Octagon at UFC 210 was Desmond Green. The three-time NCAA Division I qualifier at University at Buffalo scored a split decision victory, 30-27, 29-28, 28-29, over Josh Emmert in an early-evening three-round lightweight (155-pound) bout. MMA website Sherdog.com's trio of reporters unofficially scored the first round to Emmert but declared the former two-time Mid-American Conference champ (2009, 2010) and New York high school state champ the victor in the second and third rounds.
The 27-year-old Green, who launched his professional MMA career in April 2012, now has an overall record of 20-5.
Another native New York State mat star, Gregor Gillespie, NCAA wrestling champ for Edinboro University, made short work of his opponent at UFC 210. The former Fighting Scot knocked out Andrew Holbrook with a left hook in just 21 seconds in what had been scheduled as a three-round lightweight bout. A native of Webster, N.Y., Gillespie was a four-time NCAA All-American at Edinboro, winning the 149-pound title at the 2007 NCAAs. Former Ring of Combat champ Gillespie, who earned a $50,000 "Performance of the Night" bonus from UFC, remains undefeated as a pro in MMA with a 9-0 record.
Former Penn State heavyweight Patrick Cummins earned a majority decision (29-28, 29-28, 28-28) over Jan Blachowicz in their three-round heavyweight fight. Sherdog.com journalists scored the first round for Blachowicz but awarded the second and third to the two-time NCAA All-American for the Nittany Lions. Cummins is now 9-4 in his pro MMA career, coming off back-to-back losses.
Kamaru Usman made it four-for-four for former college wrestlers in the prelims at UFC 210. The Nigerian native -- and former William Penn and University of Nebraska-Kearney wrestler -- earned a unanimous decision over Sean Strickland in a three-round welterweight (170-pound) bout. Doctors examined Strickland's injured left eye at the beginning of Round Three but cleared him to continue. Usman, "The Ultimate Fighter 21" winner who claimed the 174-pound crown at the 2010 NCAA Division II championships for UNK, is now 10-1 overall in a career he launched in Nov. 2012.
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