Daniel Cormier went to his wrestling roots to defend his heavyweight title at UFC 230, taking Derrick Lewis down repeatedly en route to a submission victory.
Daniel Cormier comes in as both the UFC light heavyweight and heavyweight champion. He’s held the 205-pound title since 2015, defending it three times. The former Olympic wrestler won the heavyweight championship over Stipe Miocic with a first-round knockout in July.
Derrick Lewis gets his first title shot after fighting just 28 days ago. In that bout at UFC 229, he was outmatched by Alexander Volkov until there were 15 seconds remaining in the bout, when “The Black Beast” pulled off an amazing come-from-behind knockout.
Derrick Lewis opened the fight with a body kick and a leg kick. Daniel Cormier answered with a leg kick of his own. Cormier had Lewis near the fence, then shot for a takedown and got it. Cormier stayed in half guard until Lewis does what he does best, just standing up. Cormier hung on and dragged Lewis down with a single-leg. As Lewis was trying to stand from half guard, Cormier dragged him to the cage and kept him there to ride out the round. Cormier did explode several times with ground-and-pound, but Lewis was able to absorb it.
Cormier landed a body kick to start the round, then Lewis answered with a combination. Cormier swayed away from several bombs from Lewis, then took Lewis down. Lewis popped up, then DC countered with a headlock. After landing a knee, Cormier dragged Lewis down, then tripped him as he tried to back away. Cormier hopped on, took Lewis’ back, and sunk in the rear-naked choke to defend his heavyweight belt.
Joe Rogan added that Daniel Cormier will likely be fighting Brock Lesnar next, prompting the double-champ to ask Lesnar to bring his WWE belt so he can feel like a WWE champion after beating Lesnar.
Daniel Cormier def. Derrick Lewis by Submission (Rear-Naked Choke) in Round 2 (2:14)
