Daniel Cormier retained his Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) light heavyweight title -- just barely -- by defeating Alexander Gustafsson in the main event of last night's (Sat. Oct. 3, 2015) UFC 192 event in Houston, Texas.
For five rounds, the two men went back-and-forth (see it again here), refusing to give an inch, determined to walk out of The Toyota Center the champion. Though he proved victorious, "DC" admitted during the post-fight press conference (video replay here) that "The Mauler" put quite a beating on him.
His words:
"I feel pretty beat up, actually, as you'd expect. I kind of messed up my foot, I think it's broken. He checked a kick, and it's very swollen, kind of lumped up. But I feel pretty beat up. This is the worst that I've ever been beat. Gustafsson is a stud man, he's a good fighter. These are the ones that you dream about when you start doing this. You don't dream about just being involved, you want to be involved and you want to win them. I was tired in the fifth round but I just kept punching and punching and punching.
He continued on by saying that moving forward, he would drop the facade and the promos ahead of his title fights, seeing as how his words and actions reflect on him as a business partner with the company as one of the hosts for "UFC Tonight" and other television duties.
"It is my job to sell these fights. I am now a business partner of the UFC. And what I do directly affects my paycheck. I try my best. I just don't want people to be indifferent. You can love me, you can hate me, but just don't be indifferent. Care about it enough to watch. Alexander earned my respect. It's very hard to be outside yourself in a moment like that when you heart is racing as you walk back to the center of the Octagon, not exactly knowing what happened. Your bloodied up, your hurting, your body, everything hurts. You have to be honest. You have to tell the truth and the truth is that guy beat me up tonight and he made me go to a level that I didn't even know I could go to. And I appreciate him for it.
The loss for Gustafsson was his second straight, and will now be forced to climb and crawl his way back to a title shot, as this previous one was given to him coming off a loss.
Something that likely won't happen again, especially since Jon Jones is likely nearing a comeback.
Speaking of Jones, should he be given the green light to return to mixed martial arts (MMA) after he was sentenced to probation for his hit-and-run accident earlier this year, Cormier is eagerly waiting to defend his title against the former division kingpin.
Did "DC" show you anything last night to prove that a rematch with "Bones" will go differently than their first encounter?