Daniel Cormier made his long awaited Octagon debut tonight (Sat., April 20, 2013), as Frank Mir welcomed him to the big leagues in the co-main event of the UFC on Fox 7: "Henderson vs. Melendez" event at the HP Pavilion in San Jose, California. The bout represented Cormier's first true test on the big stage under the bright lights and could very well make him the next top contender in the heavyweight division.
The first round opened with Mir throwing a lot of kicks, both to the head and body. Cormier kept distance, avoiding taking any damage until he decided to come in to clinch up against the cage.
Once he got there, his relative lack of size -- the one thing Mir said he was focused on and used to poke fun in the lead up to the bout -- didn't appear to be an issue at all. In fact, he was landing hard punches to the head and body all throughout their time spent on the fence.
When he wanted to push off and reset in the middle, that's what he did.
His only slip up in the opening frame happened to be, well, a slip. He went to the mat briefly, Mir tried to capitalize by jumping a guillotine, Cormier's neck proved too small, and that was that.
It was clear that Mir would have a hard time of it over the next two rounds.
For complete results from each round of Mir vs. Cormier click here, and for complete UFC on Fox 7 results and blow-by-blow coverage of all the night's action click here.
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