Photo by Mike Roach/Zuffa LLC

Now we're in an awkward spot, aren't we?

Daniel Cormier, who was convincingly trounced by Jon Jones in his shot at UFC gold, easily picked up the vacant UFC light heavyweight strap against Anthony 'Rumble' Johnson at UFC 187. Now, of course, styles make fights but it doesn't look good to have a man who is seen as a runner-up holding onto the light heavyweight belt.

The same overhand which missed so frequently against Alexander Gustafsson and Phil Davis caught Cormier cold, straight out of the gate, and sent him stumbling to the mat. However, as soon as Johnson swarmed to finish, he found Cormier was climbing up him like a creeping vine.

We discussed how handsy Johnson's game is last week, in Rumbling of a Storm. He uses his hands to parry blows, to stop shots, and to strike. If he's busy doing one of those things, it's very difficult for him to be doing another. Consequently, each time he threw a strike at Cormier from that point forward, he exposed himself to a clinch or shot.

One significant factor in the bout was Johnson's commitment to the overhand when it was possibly the least appropriate strike he could throw, and we've seen this routinely from him. The overhand is a shorter man's strike, a giant slayer. Men like Semmy Schilt don't tend to develop overhands because you cannot overhand downwards. Cormier was already shorter than Johnson, the fact that he wanted to duck into a clinch at any opportunity only exaggerated that.

Every exchange after the first was a case of Cormier leading, Johnson returning, and Cormier immediately grabbing a clinch underneath one of Johnson's swings.

By the second round, Johnson was already out of breath and ready to give up. Spending the entire round in the bottom of half guard, fighting off a kimura. The end came in the third, as Cormier easily transitioned to the back of an exhausted Johnson and sunk in the choke.

Has Cormier gotten better? There's no real sign of it. Johnson gave him exactly what he needed, and still caught him with the few hard kicks he threw. But where Johnson is all about the roundhouse blows, Jon Jones wore Cormier down with the straight ones. Cormier wasn't exhausted from wrestling Jones, he was battered down through the gap he had to close every time he wanted to get close to Jones. Wading in and taking damage just will not cut it against the absentee light heavyweight king if he comes back in anything close to his usual form.

In the co-main event, the real main event for many fans, Chris Weidman met with his first moment of peril since Alessio Sakara was lighting up his liver with sharp combinations in 2011. Vitor Belfort came out looking smaller and older than usual—as was expected—and yet all it took was a moment of recklessness from Weidman for Belfort's hands to connect and to shake up the middleweight champion's world.

A stumble from Belfort, and suddenly Weidman forgot who he was in against. Sprinting across the ring against Anderson Silva or Lyoto Machida would have been suicide, why he did it against Belfort, I cannot hope to know.

But as Belfort poured it on, I was reminded of exactly what happened ten years ago when he met a young Kazushi Sakuraba. Belfort went wild, trying to finish, but while he has speed and power in spades, creativity is always something he has struggled with in his flurries. It was the same uppercuts, hitting the guard or the forehead of his covering opponent. Famously, Belfort broke his hands on Sakuraba's forehead in this way and pretty much gave up for the rest of the bout. Against Weidman he seemed to realize and made the switch to elbows, a nice touch.

Ultimately, as Weidman noted in the post fight interview, everything past the first few punches was simply Belfort tiring himself out. Moments later Weidman was back to normal, showing a nice hand trap to jab which he'd clearly been working on, and soon after that he was taking Vitor down, passing to mount, and battering him with strikes. The end came quickly and Weidman added another top name to his incredible record.

Further down the card, John Makdessi gamely stepped in against Donald Cerrone after an injury took the outspoken Khabib Nurmagamedov out of action. It went pretty much as expected, as Makdessi got his lead leg chewed up and was battered with punches and kicks as his mobility and defences dwindled.

Standing with the lead leg turned in as Makdessi does is great for spinning kicks, and for side kicks, but if you aren't picking up the lead leg to side kick and prevent the opponent low kicking often, you're in for a rough night. Cung Le is an example of a guy who did this well, Makdessi is an example of a guy who does very little to make use of this stance. Cerrone worked him over with low kicks and long punches—throwing in nice back elbows and knees in between.

A left high kick, that Cerrone favorite, apparently broke Makdessi's jaw and he called it a day. It was a brave showing, but the two are just a class apart in ability. That is not to say Cerrone's level is unreachable for Makdessi—reviewing Cerrone's WEC bouts he looks clumsy and limited, now he looks like a complete fighter.

Perhaps the best fight of the night in terms of entertainment value, however, was the heavyweight tilt between Andrei Arlovski and Travis Browne. The one round contest was a true slobber knocker, with both fighters being wobbled to their boots by heavy blows. Andrei Arlovski's rebirth as a right hand swinging wild man has done nothing but good things for him, and pivotal to his success was the back hand or the tattoo. Check out my video breakdown here:

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Jack Slack: Why Chris Weidman Is the New Breed of Martial Artist

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