Miocic's triumph, Cormier's retirement, and O'Malley's first defeat: what makes UFC 252 memorable

The main event of August in the Ultimate Fighting Championship was the UFC 252 tournament, in the main fight of which Stipe Miocic and Daniel Cormier met. The reigning heavyweight champion took over, and his opponent confirmed his intention to end his career. Also, the show was remembered for a bright knockout performed by Jairzinho Rosenstrike, another triumph of Merab Dvalishvili and the first defeat in the career of a young and promising American Sean O'Malley.

The end of the confrontation between Miocic and Cormier was rightly considered one of the brightest events not only of the month, but of the entire 2020 in MMA. Mainly for the reason that this battle could be the last for Daniel, who had previously announced his desire to hang his gloves on a nail after the third battle with Stipe. For 11 years in mixed martial arts, Disi has become a living legend and was among the candidates for the title of the best heavyweight in history.

As for Miocic, he is also included in the pool of applicants for this honorary title, although he cannot boast as many regalia as Cormier. He won the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix and became the second one-time UFC champion in two divisions. But it was Stipe who was the first to defend the title in the most prestigious category three times in a row. Before him, neither Randy Couture nor Kane Velazquez had this bar.

As with any truly high-profile event, this was preceded by a long waiting period. The second fight between Miocic and Cormier took place in August 2019 and since then there has been talk of revenge every month. But first, the athletes took a break, and then the pandemic intervened. As a result, the time interval between fights was 12 months, during which none of the opponents entered the cage. This caused serious discontent among other representatives of the weight who were waiting for their turn to measure their strength with the champion.

During the press conference, one of the main questions was whether Miocic would immediately use his trademark left kicks to the body, which brought him victory in the rematch. And already in the first seconds, he answered this question by testing the Cormier body for the fortress. But he demonstrated that he made certain adjustments and carried out a takedown after another attempt to punch into the body. It was not possible to keep the opponent on the floor, but it was possible to carry out the guillotine. Even having risen to his feet, Stipe was in captivity for some time, but managed to get out. At the same time, the ending of the round has already remained with Daniel. The former champion in two categories found a gap in the defense of his counterpart and almost put him on the canvas with a powerful right side.

In the first half of the second five minutes, Cormier's advantage only grew. The champion stagnated, and the challenger felt the distance and looked more and more confident in the exchanges. The Olympic wrestler dominated the stance so much that he even forgot about transfers to the ground, for which he paid very quickly. This time Miocic rushed to the attack in the end, pressed the opponent to the net, and then sent him to the canvas with a series of right punches. A finishing move followed, but Daniel survived miraculously. True, the damage was more than serious. Judging by his words during the break, he did not even remember whether he was really knocked down.

The third segment was dictated by the champion. Cormier did not have time to recover from the end of the previous round and allowed Miocic to act first. For all five minutes, Stipe reigned in the octagon, constantly being marked by heavy hits. Moreover, he worked both on the head, punching his trademark right straight lines, and on the body - one of the most memorable was the roundhouse kick. And in the last seconds, Miocic again took a spurt and almost knocked down. In the end, Daniel tried to draw Mark Goddard's attention to the fact that Stipe hit him in the eye, but the referee assured that there was no violation of the rules.

Nevertheless, during the break, the ex-champion's left eye swam, and he himself admitted that he did not see anything. Perhaps this partially influenced the alignment of forces in this segment. Miocic only increased the pressure and had superiority not only in the stand, but also in the clinch. Cormier was very seriously tired and could not even push the opponent away, allowing him to repeatedly press him against the net. The owner of the belt looked stronger and gave no reason to doubt it.

On the eve of the fifth round, Miocic won at least three five minutes and was leading in shots with a score of 129: 84, which did not leave Cormier a chance to win on points. He had to hope only for an early victory, which determined his actions. Daniel went forward, but his strength was not enough. At times he fought well and threw out the most powerful right hooks after coming out of the clinch, but overall Stipe was much stronger.

The fight lasted all five rounds, after which the judges delivered their verdict. At the same time, Daniel understood everything after they announced the assessments of the first of them. As a result, two referees gave Stipe four rounds out of five, and the third - three. Miocic defended the honorary title and won the sixth victory in the heavyweight title fights under the auspices of the UFC. According to this indicator, he caught up with the legendary Randy Couture.

Cormier was very upset and immediately left the octagon, refusing to congratulate Miocic on his victory. In an interview, he paid tribute to his counterpart, but again drew attention to the fact that he got in the eye in the third round. With regards to the end of his career, Daniel admitted that he is unlikely to participate in the title race in the near future and confirmed his intention to leave the sport.

“I'm only interested in title fights. I don’t think this will be in store for me in the near future. I think that's all. I've had a long journey. That was great. Held the last fight for the heavyweight title. He was good, ”Cormier said.

In general, the composition of the UFC 252 participants was not the strongest, however, several very interesting battles took place within the framework of the tournament. In one of them, the rising star of the promotion, Sean O'Malley, tried to win a fifth victory in a row under the auspices of the championship. He was opposed by the strong Marlon Vera, who could be safely called the most serious rival in O'Malley's career. In three of the last four fights, the Ecuadorian took over, and only Song Yadong managed to stop him.

At first, O'Malley acted as the first number and looked confident in the rack, but during one of the episodes he stumbled very unsuccessfully and injured his leg. After that, the American could not come to his senses for a long time and practically did not respond to the attacks of his opponent, and when he nevertheless decided to do this, he ended up on the ground. Vera rushed to finish off and even hit his elbow a couple of times, but Herb Dean stopped the duel not because of this. The referee realized that Sean could not get up.

Thus, O'Malley was unable to win 13 victories in a row and suffered the first defeat in his career. As it turned out later, he seriously injured his ankle and left the arena on a stretcher. At the same time, he had previously experienced problems with his legs. In the battle with Andre Suhamtat, he was also damaged and hardly endured to the end, but still prevailed.

In the third most important fight of the evening, the fifth and sixth numbers of the heavyweight rating met. Jairzinho Rosenstrik rehabilitated himself for the defeat to Francis Ngannou and won by knockout for the tenth time. This time he was confronted by former UFC champion Junior Dos Santos. The Brazilian controlled the course of the fight and looked impressive in exchanges, but in the final part of the second round he missed the opponent's rapid attack and ended up on the floor. The Surinamese rushed to finish off and very soon forced John Miragliotta to intervene.

At the same time, other athletes received bonuses for the "Performance of the evening". One of them was Daniel Pineda, who turned out to be stronger than Herbert Burns. The younger brother of the first number of welterweight did not cope with the wrestling skills of the enemy and in the middle of the second five minutes he found himself on the floor. The American moved into a dominant position from the side and tied his counterpart's hands, imprisoning him in the so-called "crucifixion". A series of elbow strikes followed, which predetermined the outcome of the duel.

Also, an additional $ 50 thousand went to Virne Yandirobe. It took her only 104 seconds to force Felix Herrig to surrender. The Brazilian woman quickly moved her to the ground, then caught her on the lever of the elbow. This success became one of the four fastest in the history of minimum weight in women. Only Marina Moroz, Livinya Sousa and Emily Whitmire made their rivals surrender in less time.

The Fight of the Night cash prize went to featherweight Kai Kamaka and Tony Kelly, who fought a three-round fight early in the show. Also, the tournament was remembered for another triumph of Merab Dvalishvili. He repeated the success of Peter Jan and took over John Dodson. It is noteworthy that the Georgian fighter has 12 victories, and the American has the same number of defeats.