The heavyweight bout between Daniel Cormier and Jeff Monson was an interesting clash of styles tonight. An Olympic-level wrestler in Cormier was fighting in by far the biggest test of his young career so far against one of the top heavyweight grapplers in the world, Monson.
From the beginning of the fight, the pace was already dictated with the two fighters exchanging punches on the feet, despite being largely known as their ground games.
Monson seemed to know that he had relatively no chance of taking the fight to the ground and looked to land some haymakers on the feet instead.
The two men bumped heads as they clinched next to the fence, opening up a decent cut on the top of Monson’s head. It probably looked worse than it was given Monson’s bald head, but it was noticeable either way and it looked like it may have been opened by a punch in real-time.
The fight wasn’t particularly exciting at any point, with neither fighter landing many particularly big shots. That said, the standup game was all Cormier’s, and he didn’t let the fight go to the ground.
Monson, whose biggest weakness has always been his standup game, was exposed tonight by a fighter who looks like he could be a big-time contender in the heavyweight division going forward given his tremendous wrestling and surprisingly solid boxing.
Cormier won a judges’ decision by unanimous 30-27 scores across the board.
It is expected that this will be Monson’s final fight at heavyweight as he looks to move down to the 205-pound light heavyweight division.
A.J. Burnett Steve Garrison Phil Hughes Damaso Marte Mariano Rivera Kerry Wood
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