Oct 7, 2015
There are a lot of things to unpack following UFC 192, as we knew there would be. A card so loaded with meaningful matchups unsurprisingly had its share of meaningful results, and on this week's episode of Heavy Hands we discuss the most interesting ones.
The title fight between champion Daniel Cormier and Alexander Gustafsson was stupendous and troubling in the way that all truly great fights are. While Gustafsson defied those who counted him out as we predicted he would, he may also have confirmed some of our fears about his mental state following a crushing knockout defeat at the hands of Anthony Johnson last year. Daniel Cormier, on the other hand, dealt with Gustafsson's size better than we ever expected, and proved himself to be the very best at light heavyweight--except for Jon Jones, now hungrily waiting in the wings.
In the co-feature, Ryan Bader put the pieces together. After a difficult evolution as a striker, including the loss of a coach that had only begun to make marked improvements to Ryan's boxing skills, the light heavyweight division's least-remembered man finally got the marquee win he has lacked for so long, using beautiful timing to disrupt the rhythm of Rashad Evans en route to a lopsided decision win over the returning veteran.
And Albert Tumenov . . . my God, Albert Tumenov did some nasty things to Alan Jouban on the undercard. Is he the best boxer at welterweight? Only time will tell, but we have our thoughts. All of that and more on this episode of Heavy Hands.