UFC 230 takeaways: Cormier should be cherished, Adesanya ‘is the future’

double-champ-daniel-cormier-holds-two-ufc-title-belts

Daniel Cormier holds his belts after defeating Derrick Lewis by submission at UFC 230 at Madison Square Garden in New York. (Julio Cortez/AP)

Considering the UFC didn’t lock down a headliner for its third Madison Square Garden event until roughly three weeks ago, UFC 230 was a complete success.

There was little trash talk, no gimmicks or sideshows, the fights themselves delivered, and nothing post-fight overshadowed what had transpired inside the Octagon. It’s been rather common this year for events to leave mixed martial arts fans unsatisfied, but UFC 230 was purely a showcase of talent.

Daniel Cormier’s greatness was on full display, as was the UFC’s stacked middleweight division. There were knockouts, submissions, hard-fought decisions, and wins both surprising and thrilling.

Here are a few takeaways from UFC 230.

We’re going to really miss Cormier when he’s done

D.C. easily defended his heavyweight title against knockout artist Derrick Lewis — the UFC’s hardest puncher since Shane Carwin was separating foes from their senses on a regular basis — and it was somewhat bittersweet because it was one of the last times we’ll get to see the current double champ compete.

The former Olympic wrestler is going to be 40 in March and he’s only planning one or two or maybe three more fights before he hangs up his gloves for good. He’s holding out hope that a 2019 blockbuster matchup with Brock Lesnar comes to fruition. It’s what Cormier was waiting on before the UFC proposed to him the short-notice bout with Lewis. It’s always a big deal when Lesnar fights and it’ll likely be Cormier’s biggest payday to date, something he deserves for how he’s carried himself and performed over the years.

If Lesnar can’t keep passing USADA drug tests, or the matchup falls apart for another reason, then a rematch with former champ Stipe Miocic is possible. More interesting would be a trilogy bout with Jon Jones, something firmly within the realm of possibility. If Jones-Cormier III is made then let’s hope, for Cormier’s sake, the third meeting takes place at heavyweight where Cormier is the undisputed champ.

Jones is the only man to solve Cormier in MMA. Alexander Gustafsson nearly did too but those fights were in the light-heavyweight division where Cormier has to seriously deplete his body to make the 205-pound championship weight limit.

At heavyweight, though, no one has really come close to beating Cormier. You get the best version of him at heavyweight. You don’t necessarily when he fights at 205. He weighed 251 pounds for UFC 230. That more or less his natural walk-around weight. Draining himself to make 205 is unnatural and unhealthy.

So, it’s tough to call him the pound-for-pound G.O.A.T. because of how his fights with Jones ended. However, D.C. does have a valid claim that he’s the greatest heavyweight in MMA history. Jones has a claim to the former, not the latter.

On Saturday, we saw just how far ahead of the competition Cormier is with respect to heavyweights. Four months after his first-round knockout of Miocic — who holds the record for most consecutive UFC heavyweight title defences — Cormier put on a clinic against Lewis.

Lewis admittedly does not have a well-rounded skill set and his wrestling is weak compared to most other ranked heavyweights. His ability to win fights, on the other hand, was never in doubt. His self-deprecating humour might’ve led you to think he was unworthy of being in the cage with someone of Cormier’s stature but prior to UFC 230 Lewis had won nine of 10, including wins over Gabriel Gonzaga, Roy Nelson, Travis Browne, Francis Ngannou and most recently Alexander Volkov.

Lewis cuts weight to make the 265-pound heavyweight limit. On fight night he’s more like 280 pounds or heavier and yet Cormier was tossing him around like he did a 199-pound Dan Henderson when they fought in 2014. Cormier strung together a multitude of takedown techniques and controlled every single position the two found themselves in.

“A lot of people have to understand that I’ve been doing this for nine years and I fought at a championship level for eight of them,” Cormier said after the fight. “If you have a puncher’s chance it’s not good enough.”

Cormier had little issue taking the fight with Lewis on short notice, despite having an injured hand, yet didn’t take a rematch with Miocic on short notice out of respect to the former champ’s skill set. In one sense it was disrespectful towards Lewis, but really Cormier simply proved his confidence was warranted.

He became the first fighter to successfully defend a UFC title in two different weight classes.

“I’ve told you guys for a very long time that I wanted to be remembered when I left this sport and I think when you get into doing things that have never been done before that ensures I will always be thought of when you think about the greatest fighters of all time,” he added at the post-fight press conference. “It’s truly, truly amazing. And then to do it in Madison Square Garden, it’s just insane.”

How his peers speak of him and appreciate what he does speaks volumes about his place in the sport’s history.

Cormier will always be connected to Jones regardless of whether or not they meet once more, but his accomplishments at heavyweight stand alone and because of that Cormier has carved out his own place among the all-time greats, independent of his biggest rival.

Adesanya is the truth

Derek Brunson has some quality wins over quality opponents. If you get by him, you’re legit, a world-class middleweight. If you beat him the way in which Israel Adesanya did to open the pay-per-view portion of Saturday’s event, you’re a viable contender potentially teetering on the edge of superstardom.

“Israel has been a guy who has been on the rise here for a minute, but I really felt like tonight was his first big test,” UFC president Dana White said at the post-fight press conference. “Obviously, his opponent hits like a truck and wrestles really well, and Madison Square Garden, opening the show, and man did he deliver. Many people, including me, think this kid is the future, and he went out and put a stamp on it tonight.”

Before we crown Adesanya kingpin at 185 pounds, let’s see how he does against a top middleweight that knows how to intelligently implement grappling into a game plan. Adesanya, a former kickboxing champion, has passed every test he’s faced thus far but let’s be honest here, he has been blessed with favourable stylistic matchups during his UFC tenure.

He looked great against Brunson, the No. 6-ranked contender in the division, but how would he do against someone like No. 5-ranked Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza who starched Chris Weidman in the co-main event? Once you get into the top five at middleweight it’s a whole new ballgame.

Middleweight is strong right now. Really strong and really deep. Champion Robert Whittaker and his next challenger Kelvin Gastelum are at the top but there were a handful of 185ers that fought Saturday who could step in and hold their own against either of them. Adesanya appears to be one of them.

The Nigerian-born New Zealander is 4-0 since debuting in the UFC in February and became the first UFC fighter to pick up four wins in 2018. When you watch Adesanya fight and you listen to him talk you get a hint of Jon Jones, a dash Conor McGregor, a morsel of Michael “Venom” Page, and a pinch of something completely new.

“I’m sitting pretty. I’ve got the buffet in front of me and I’m about to eat,” Adesanya told the UFC’s Megan Olivi.

Look out, middleweights. The Last Stylebender is comin’ for ya.

Eubanks still has work to do before title shot

Sijara Eubanks picked up a dominant unanimous decision victory over Roxanne Modafferi in a featured preliminary bout on a card she was briefly slated to headline against Valentina Shevchenko for the vacant women’s flyweight title. It’s a good thing for Eubanks that the UFC went in a different direction as she didn’t look ready to compete for the gold.

Eubanks allowed Modafferi to connect on 73 total strikes, many of which were standing head strikes. Imagine if the Eubanks that showed up to UFC 230 was in there against a game Shevchenko? It wouldn’t have gone well. Modafferi is a respected veteran in women’s MMA, a pioneer even, but she does not possess a skill-set remotely threatening to those currently competing at the highest level of modern MMA.

Shevchenko meets longtime strawweight champ Joanna Jedrzejczyk next month at UFC 231 in Toronto with the vacant 125-pound title up for grabs. Eubanks, a 33-year-old Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt with power in her hands, could’ve guaranteed herself a shot at the winner had she been more impressive against Modafferi. Eubanks also missed weight. We’ve seen how that doesn’t necessarily impact how the UFC awards title shots (just ask Darren Till) but it certainly didn’t help Eubanks’s case.

Bantamweights-turned-flyweights Kaitlyn Chookagian and Jessica Eye are also set to battle at UFC 231 and the winner of that bout could now potentially get the next shot.

Here are the complete results from UFC 230:

MAIN CARD
— Daniel Cormier def. Derrick Lewis by submission
— Ronaldo Souza def. Chris Weidman by TKO
— Jared Cannonier def. David Branch by TKO
— Karl Roberson def. Jack Marshman by unanimous decision
— Israel Adesanya def. Derek Brunson by TKO

PRELIMINARY CARD
— Jordan Rinaldi def. Jason Knight by unanimous decision
— Sijara Eubanks def. Roxanne Modafferi by unanimous decision
— Sheymon Moraes def. Julio Arce by split decision
— Lyman Good def. Ben Saunders by knockout
— Matt Frevola vs. Lando Vannata ends in majority draw
— Shane Burgos def. Kurt Holobaugh by submission
— Marcos Rogério de Lima def. Adam Wieczorek by unanimous decision

[relatedlinks]

When submitting content, please abide by our submission guidelines, and avoid posting profanity, personal attacks or harassment. Should you violate our submissions guidelines, we reserve the right to remove your comments and block your account. Sportsnet reserves the right to close a story’s comment section at any time.