Credit: Dave Mendel, USA TODAY

Adam Gerber (Review) So… Yoel Romero and Paulo Costa had an insane, chaotic fight that lived up to every bit of hype that had been built. Costa proved he is a force to be reckoned with at Middleweight and then some. Without a doubt he has earned the first shot against the winner of Robert Whittaker and Israel Adesanya. But how come, in the midst of all the chaos, did none of the commentators mention that Yoel Romero's damn tongue was hanging out of his mouth mockingly while he was eating combos from Costa? I thought one of those heaters would catch the tongue against Yoel’s bottom teeth any moment, sending it flying into the audience.

(Credit: AFP)

Yoel Romero was the veteran trickster in this fight, from goading Costa on with silly faces and near misses to pulling the “look over there” and pointing before knocking Costa down and saving himself from being finished after being rocked in the first 45 seconds.

Yoel hurts Costa’s shin with his face (Credit: Josh Hedges, Zuffa LLC)

Classic Diaz scrap (Credit: APF)

Nate Diaz returned at UFC 241, and showed that he not only has an ability, but a willingness to change and adapt his game plan in order maximize his tools and attributes. His leg checks were completely on point, and he even managed to injure Pettis’ foot on a check and take away one of Pretty Tony’s main weapons in the fight. He was willing to get in a grinding clinch battle against the cage, hanging on Pettis to make him carry his large frame, all the while sneaking in body shots and the eventual elbows which stunned Pettis and signalled the beginning of a downward spiral of punishment culminating in the 6 foot tall Diaz hammering an exhausted Pettis effortlessly with knees from the clinch. He mentioned in his post-fight interviews that he needed to use more than just volume striking to tire Pettis out since it was a 3 round fight and not a 5, and he must have taken the sentiment seriously. I mean… Nate Diaz shot a double leg. But the best part of Diaz’s triumphant return to the octagon was his interview in the cage immediately after the fight. After celebrating his win with Joe Rogan and giving props to Pettis, Nate made his next callout, and when he did the name everyone was certain to hear didn’t come out. He planted the seed with Jorge Masvidal for a fight nobody knew they needed, and Masvidal’s face in the crowd embodied the soul of every fan who loves great fights and appreciates that the fight game finally seems to be moving on from Conor McGregor.

Jorge Masvidal and everyone who loves violence are like a kid on Christmas at the thought of him fighting Nate Diaz (Credit: Zuffa LLC)

In short, Pettis forced Diaz to fight in a way that if people fought against Diaz 5 years ago he called them a pussy. All it really was though was high fight IQ and a willingness to implement whatever technique he needed to in order to put another tally in the win column. And in one well-timed callout, showed that maybe some of these other guys should be in the spotlight instead of everyone asking how McGregor is going to fit into all this.

Credit: Dave Mendel USA TODAY SPORTS

If you read last week’s article previewing the main event, you know how conflicted I was about the fight. Going into the main event I thought that as the fight unfolded it would be revealed to me who I actually wanted to win. As it turned out all I did was root for whoever was losing at any particular moment, and cheer for them to do better at whatever was getting the best of them. This means that the whole fight I was essentially cheering for Stipe because Daniel was walking him down, hands down, with disdain for Stipe’s combos and power. And Stipe's defense was nowhere near where I thought it should be, he was getting tagged with essentially everything DC threw, and he still got hit with almost every single right hand out of the clinch coming from DC, which is exactly how he KO'd Miocic in the first fight. It seemed like an inevitable outcome that eventually Stipe would catch one and fall. All the while DC ate Stipe's punches with almost no reaction.

Stipe goes for a high-crotch ride in Anaheim courtesy of DC airlines Credit: Dave Mendel, USA TODAY SPORTS

It seems from Stipe's ability to take damage in this fight as opposed to the first, that having a 25-minute fight and getting punched in the head by Francis Ngannou 5 months prior really did deteriorate his durability. But now his durability was back, and it was obvious DC didn't believe it. DC was fighting the whole fight like Miocic was currently staggered. He ate shots like it was impossible for Stipe to hurt him. He threw shots like it was a guaranteed eventuality that with any next shot Stipe would be on his back on the canvas once more. Not to mention, his utilization of clinch fighting and wrestling was minimal in this bout after the 1st round. It seemed that he made the very same mental mistakes he was warning Stipe about before the fight, except instead of Stipe thinking the first result was a total and complete fluke, it was DC making the mistake of thinking the first result represented a forgone conclusion for the rematch.

Stipe digs the body and turns the tides (Credit: Dave Mendel, USA TODAY SPORTS)

But in the 4th, when Stipe dug the first 3 body shots, my allegiances switched. Some one else was loosing. "Those body shots will end the fight! Stop reaching for his hands, it's opening your body up! Tie up, wrestle him DC!” For some reason Cormier couldn't hear me through my laptop. Short minutes later it was over, and in the end it was as demoralizing and grievous as I predicted it would be with the added oddity of Miocic river dancing over a broken and battered DC.

Stipe does his best Valentina Shevchenko impression after dispatching Cormier Credit: Dave Mendel, USA TODAY SPORTS

As Saturday’s main event gets further away in time it becomes easier to find the joy in Stipe’s victory. A feeling that closely mirrors the effects that the first fight’s result conjured up. Now DC has to deal with where this loss leaves him. The exit door, which was meant to lead him away from the fight game and let him ride off into the sunset to retire, has been slammed in his face. He was on course to going out as the greatest heavyweight to ever do it, and now he is forced to choose between being content with what he has already accomplished and his final moments in the octagon being moments of devastation, or pushing on into his 40’s while trying to avoid the age old trap of “trying to go out on a win.” As much as I’d hate to see DC continue to fight when he feels like he should be retired, I couldn’t have been more wrong about the narrative if he were to lose. Instead of the talk being about how he should have retired when he said he would, it is about how Cormier came back from back surgery and looked better than ever, and how he was winning what seemed to be every round until Stipe started stringing together left hooks to the body. Unfortunately, the talk is about how DC seemingly threw out a winning game plan after the 1st round, and in his own words he fell in love with the fact that Stipe was there to be hit. So they stood and traded for the next 3 rounds. Fortunately, that fact alone is fuel enough to justify an immediate rubber match with Stipe Miocic, if DC did decide that’s what he wanted to do. Surprisingly enough, I think that’s what I want to see. Cormier himself said that he threw the game plan away, even apologizing to his coaches and team. But how would this fight go if he had followed the game plan? Stipe seemed lost in the first underneath Cormier; what if he got wrestled the whole fight? Many might ask why we would want to see DC possibly go through all this again, I mean, it is not like he has much left to prove. I would just hate to see Daniel go out like that after 241, not necessarily on a loss, but on a performance he isn’t proud of.

The potential final image of Daniel “DC” Cormier’s career as a professional MMA fighter Credit: Gary A. Vasquez, USA TODAY SPORTS