UFC 210 Review

DISCLAIMER: The article is reviewing the co main and main event,


UFC 210 was an interesting night.

There was a controversial ending to the co main event, one fighter becoming a free agent after being very outspoken about his UFC pay, and another fighter retired,

With this in mind, here's my UFC 210 review.




Gegard Mousasi defeats Chris Weidman via second-round Technical Knockout (Knees)

The opinionated Gegard Mousasi beat the All-American Chris Weidman by controversial technical knockout in the last fight of Mousasi's current UFC contract.

Mousasi (now 13-3 MMA, 9-3 UFC) struggled in the first round against Weidman's striking but struck Weidman with a series of knees in the second round, one of which referee Dan Miragliotta deemed illegal. 

A doctor was then sent into the Octagon to give Weidman medical attention and a scheuled five minute rest. However, on seeing replays, Miragliotta overturned the decision and said the knee was legal due to Weidman having both hands on the mat when the knee was landed. 

The decision was then deemed a TKO win for Mousasi.

Speaking in the post-fight press conference, Weidman, who has now on a three fight losing streak, said:

“Pretty much for the whole time, Miragliotta was telling me ‘illegal knee.'

“I thought I was going to win because of the illegal knee. Then they looked at a replay, they left the Octagon and looked at the replay and see the legal knee, but in the state of New York, you’re not allowed to look, there’s no replays. It’s a crappy situation.”

He added “I knew what I was doing,  

“He kneed me in the head once when I had the hands down, so I said, ‘alright i’ll put the two hands down, so he can’t knee me,’ then he kneed me and the ref stopped it saying it’s an illegal knee. That’s as clear as I was with it.

“At the end of the day, the people of New York got screwed,” Weidman said. “I got screwed, and it sucks.”

Mousasi (now 42-6-2 MMA, 9-3 UFC) commented in the post-fight press conference “At the end of the day, I’m fighting,” 

“I have a lot of respect for Weidman. I don’t want to badmouth him. But if you want to play smart and take advantage of the rules, that’s not my fault. I’m fighting. If you want to put your hands down so I cannot knee you — you’re fighting, don’t try to take advantage of the rules. I’m fighting, and at the end of the day, it was legal. That’s what everyone says now, it was legal."

In reference to a rematch, the Iranian said “If he wants his rematch, I can give it to him,

“But at the end of the day, I’m chasing the title. If I fight Michael Bisping, I think I would be the favourite. 

“It’s up to UFC. If they want to make a rematch, make it in Holland. Sure, why not? The crowd was on his side this time. He fights me in Holland, the crowd would be on my side. So, yes. He tried to play it smart, take advantage of the rules and get me disqualified. I think everyone saw that. Don’t blame me. That’s all I can say.”

Rounding off on his fifth win in a row, the former DREAM and StrikeForce champion added: “I wasn’t in a happy mood. It’s not the way I want to win,” 

“But at the end of the day, it’s a win. Some soccer games, they score with a penalty kick and they win. It’s a win. At the end of the day, I’ll take it. But like I said, he didn’t want to fight. That’s not my fault.”

Whether he will resign or not is just something we'll have to see.




Daniel Cormier beats Anthony Johnson via second-round rear-naked choke to retain the UFC Light Heavyweight Championship

In the rematch from their UFC 187 fight for the then vacant Light Heavyweight title, Daniel Cormier beat Anthony Johnson via rear-naked choke, this time in the second round.

Anthony Johnson (now 22-6 MMA, 13-6 UFC) then announced his retirement from MMA.



It was shocking and Johnson added to it in the post-fight press conference: “It’s just business,

“I want to do something besides going to the gym everyday punching and kicking and rolling around with another dude. That sh*t gets old. I’ve been doing this for so long, I’ve been in sports since I was 8, it’s just time to move on to something different. I won’t say better, but just different.

On how he'd like to remembered, Johnson was frank in saying: “Just a guy who went out there and went all out and just never gave up,

“Even when I was down and was getting stepped on and kicked and things like that, I still kept going. I didn’t win all of my fights, obviously, but I went out there and did my best, and I think people appreciated what I did for them and what they saw in me out there. I hope that I made a lot of people happy and excited to see me fight. Not many people can go through hell and back like I did and still rise to the top. I didn’t win a title, but I was still knocking at that door. 

“ The toughest fight I can possibly think of was always with myself,” Johnson added. “That’s just what it is. That’s everybody’s fight. You always battle yourself and not the opponent.”

With Johnson gone, Cormier (now 19-1 MMA, 8-1 UFC) looks set to fight either Jimi Mamiwara (now 17-2 MMA, 6-2 UFC) or Jon Jones (22-1 MMA, 16-1 UFC). 

In the post-fight press conference, Cormier said “It’s like you take a table and you put a bunch of kitchen appliances, and at the end of one side, there is a pot and at the other end there is a kettle, 

“And the pot starts yelling ‘you’re dirty,’ while you're sitting there with a steroid needle. That's my opinion on that, you sit over there pot with your Cialis or whatever it’s called, and you throw it at the kettle, so sit over there pot in detention, Cialis boy."

He rounded off by talking about his controversial weigh-in incident “I made the weight, that’s how you put it to rest,

“I fought tonight, defended my championship. I knew that the scale wasn’t weighing what I weighed upstairs. I’ve been checking my weight all week. 

“If I was holding the towel, I was just trying to hide myself. Because when I got off the first time, my ass was showing. It’s on Ariel’s (Helwani) website (MMAFighting.com), I saw it. My entire ass — moon landing. So I just wanted to cover myself.”

Who he'll fight next is up to himself and the UFC but it looks likely that we could get Jones vs Cormier 2 sometime this summer.