That’s all for now. Be sure to check out Josh Gross’ report off tonight’s card below.
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“Ten years of my life working hard for this moment,” an overjoyed Nunes says. “I feel amazing!”
Amanda Nunes becomes the first Brazilian woman to become a UFC champion. She cries in delight as she slips the belt on and embraces Tate. A flawless performance by Nunes.
Amanda Nunes def Miesha Tate via submission (rear-naked choke)
Tate v Nunes: round one
Nunes lands a kick but Tate completes a takedown. The fighters are quickly back to their feet. Tate hurt badly! Stunned by a right hand! Tate’s face is busted up. Oh dear. Tate is down and Nunes has got her around the back. She’s got the choke hold and it’s over at 3.16 of the first round!
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Amanda Nunes is first into the octagon. Now the lights go down and Miesha Tate makes her ringwalk to Katy Perry’s Roar. Here how Sarah Kaufman sees the fight.
Here's how I see the fight: nunes drops Tate rd 1. They scrap rd 2 and Tate gets the back and chokes nunes rd 2 or 3 #UFC200
— Sarah Kaufman (@mmasarah) July 10, 2016
Hey, Tom Brady and Justin Timberlake are here. And they’re sitting next to each other. And they possibly shop at the same hat store.
Eu salvei essa foto ou ela q me salvou? Justin Timberlake e Tom Brady vendo o UFC alguém me ajuda pic.twitter.com/JCbFICpoNm
— Mari (@mariih_lhp) July 10, 2016
“It took me a little while to get acclimated,” Lesnar tells Joe Rogan during the in-ring interview. “Words can’t describe it. Thank you everybody, thank you so much.”
He then makes a statement that seems to reference the chaos that’s beset the country over the past week: “One thing I do want to do: America, a shout out to the men in uniform that protect and serve this country, from sea to shining sea. From one white boy to all nationalities. We need to stand together, people.”
Brock Lesnar def Mark Hunt via unanimous decision
Lesnar wins by scores of 29-27, 29-27 and 29-27 over Hunt! What an athletic feat to come back from a five-year absence and defeat a heavyweight ranked in the UFC’s top 10.
Lesnar v Hunt: round three
Lesnar scores his fourth takedown early in the round and is in mount, a great position to finish the fight. He’s got Hunt pinned up against the cage and is landing left hands at will. A minutes passes. Lesnar now in full mount. Not quite sure what Hunt is up to. More hard right hands from Lesnar, pouring it on Hunt one after another after another. All Lesnar with 90 seconds left in the fight. More ground and pound – lather, rinse, repeat. The fans seem to be enjoying this, I guess. Lesnar should be your winner. Now to wait for the official scores.
Guardian’s unofficial score: Lesnar 10-9 Hunt (Lesnar 29-28 Hunt)
Lesnar v Hunt: round two
Hunt looks a bit gassed. Lesnar parries an overhand right. UFC punch stats indicate Lesnar had a 15-1 advantage in significant strikes. Lesnar bouncing on his toes now, but now moving back slowly. Lesnar dives in to attempt a takedown but Hunt stays on his feet. Three minutes left. Hunt doing far better this round though he’s yet to land anything significant. Another takedown attempt by Lesnar but Hunt easily escapes it. Hunt now stalking Lesnar and landing a liver shot. Lesnar looks completely spent. Not much to score on here but Hunt landed a few shots, defended the takedowns well and generally had Lesnar moving backwards from wire to wire.
Guardian’s unofficial score: Lesnar 9-10 Hunt (Lesnar 19-19 Hunt)
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Lesnar v Hunt: round one
Lesnar staying to the outside and circling, Hunt keeping his right hand cocked. Leg kick by Lesnar is the first real engagement. A very tentative start and the fighters feel one another out. Lesnar surges forward, rams him into the cage as Hunt clings to the fence until Lesnar finally completes the takedown. Some solid ground and pound from Lesnar who is in side control and lands a few shots with his left. A good knee to the body by Lesnar. Hunt scrambles to his feet but Lesnar immediately looks for another takedown and gets it. Lesnar opening up. Will he finish it in the first? Ten seconds left and it looks like Hunt will hang on. Two takedowns and some effective ground and pound is more than enough to tip it to the WWE star.
Guardian’s unofficial score: Lesnar 10-9 Hunt (Lesnar 10-9 Hunt)
Mark Hunt making his way to the octagon to N.W.A’s Express Yourself. The New Zealander is the second oldest fighter on the UFC roster. Now the lights go down and Enter Sandman blasts over the arena PA system. Is that Mariano Rivera? No, it’s Brock Lesnar, whom the play-by-play commentator calls “the ultimate alpha male”.
Brock Lesnar up next. While we wait for the fighters to make their walks to the octagon, here’s a piece from our Dan McQuade from last year looking back at Lesnar’s impressive sporting credentials.
A note on the crowd. Maybe it wasn’t in the best taste to boo Cormier for grinding out the win against an unfamiliar opponent.
Absolutely disgusting behavior by this crowd. Would you boo birds prefer if DC just turned down the fight? This is embarrassing.
— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) July 10, 2016
Daniel Cormier def Anderson Silva via unanimous decision
Cormier wins by scores of 30-26, 30-26 and 30-26 over Silva. The champion sounds almost apologetic in his in-ring interview. “The fight went how it had to go,” he says. “I’ve been training for a specific guy for eight weeks. I was a little nervous [because Silva] is so good, but I did what i had to do.”
Cormier v Silva: round three
Cormier briefly meets Silva on his terms to start the third and the Spider enjoys brief moments of success, landing a leg kick and a few punches, but Cormier quickly takes him down and resumes the ground and pound. Cue a swell of boos from the crowd. Audience now chanting: “Stand them up! Stand them up!” The referee accommodates. Ninety seconds left and Silva needs a knockout. Silva clearly probing and looking for a big shot as Cormier prods with half-hearted leg kicks. And Cormier is hurt by a kick to the liver! Reels backward but Cormier gets him in a clinch and runs out the clock. Still, too little too late. Waiting on the final scores.
Guardian’s unofficial score: Cormier 10-9 Silva (Cormier 30-26 Silva)
Cormier v Silva: round two
Picking up right where we left off at the end of the first round. More ground and pound from Cormier, who is maintaining top position but hasn’t necessarily landed a devastating blow. Fans starting to boo. The referee orders them to stand and Silva looks exhausted. Silva takes a right to the chin but slips it somewhat. Both men standing and trading punches but nothing much landing. We’re beginning to understand why the UFC slashed Cormier’s purse by 50%.
Guardian’s unofficial score: Cormier 10-9 Silva (Cormier 20-17 Silva)
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Cormier v Silva: round one
Silva circles Cormier from the opening bell but Cormier takes him down inside the first minute. Cormier, who appears to enjoy a 25lb weight advantage, in complete control on top of Silva. More ground and pound from Cormier, almost playing it safe with short punches. Zero offense from Silva.
Guardian’s unofficial score: Cormier 10-8 Silva (Cormier 10-8 Silva)
Here comes Anderson Silva, making his ringwalk to DMX’s Ain’t No Sunshine. He’s closely followed by Daniel Cormier, who is coming out to Right Above It by Lil Wayne feat. Drake. Cormier holds the belt at light heavyweight, but since Silva took the fight on such short notice it’s a three-round non-title fight. More on that here from our Les Carpenter.
Jose Aldo def Frankie Edgar via unanimous decision
Aldo wins by scores of 49-46, 49-46 and 48-47 over Edgar. A hell of a scrap with both men looking as if they’ve been in a war. Aldo is the new interim featherweight champion. Perhaps the finest performance of the Brazilian’s career. He showed great versatility and shut down Edgar’s offense. And no one watched with greater interest than Conor McGregor at ringside.
That look from McGregor...#UFC200 pic.twitter.com/eAzLlEKdub
— Sports on Earth (@SportsonEarth) July 10, 2016
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Now it’s Jose Aldo and Frankie Edgar set to fight for an interim featherweight title fight. First Edgar to the octagon, then Aldo, the most dominant at his weight in UFC history.
Cain Velasquez def Travis Browne via TKO (punches) at 4.57 of first round
Velasquez wins by first-round knockout! An excellent all-around performance from the former UFC heavyweight champion, who comes straight ahead with a series of low kicks. Backs up Browne against the cage and ultimately takes him down with an overhand right. Browne makes it to his feet but looks spent. Velasquez throws in a wheel kick for good measure but misses it. Showing great variety tonight. Down Browne goes again and simply covers up as Velasquez keeps throwing punches until Big John McCarthy intervenes. He never let up on Browne from the opening bell. It’s his 10th knockout in the UFC, more than anyone in organization history save for Vitor Belfort (12) and Anderson Silva (11), who fights later tonight.
Can we please just take a second to reflect on @CainMMA's Spinning Back Kick?!? That was AWESOME! #UFC200 pic.twitter.com/gWz0nZQZla
— #UFC200 (@ufc) July 10, 2016
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First up is Travis Browne v Cain Velasquez. The fighters are in the octagon now and ring announcer Bruce Buffer nearly pops a blood vessel presenting them to the sold-out crowd.
Tonight's main card
Here’s a look at the five fights on tonight’s main card. The announcers are calling this not only one of the biggest events in mixed martial arts history, but one of the biggest events in sports history. Well, at least they’re not being melodramatic.
- Travis Browne v Cain Velasquez, heavweights
- Jose Aldo v Frankie Edgar, featherweight title fight
- Daniel Cormier v Anderson Silva, light heavyweights
- Brock Lesnar v Mark Hunt, heavyweights
- Miesha Tate v Amanda Nunes, women’s bantamweights
Preamble/Early results
Hello and welcome to tonight’s live commentary of UFC 200. The televised undercard is about to start but before we have a look at what’s to come, here’s a look at the preliminary results so far.
- Jim Miller def Takanori Gomi via TKO (strikes) at 2.18 of first round
- Gegard Mousasi def Thiago Santos via KO (punch) at 4.32 of first round
- Joe Lauzon def Diego Sanchez via TKO (strikes) at 1.26 of first round
- Sage Northcutt def Enrique Marin via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
- TJ Dillashaw def Raphael Assuncao via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
- Kelvin Gastelum def Johny Hendricks via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
- Julianna Pena def Cat Zingano via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
Bryan will be here shortly. In the meantime why not check out Josh Gross’s preview of tonight’s stacked card.
UFC 200 was always intended to be memorable. But not quite like this.
And so it is that an event intended to be a celebration of mixed martial arts, an event capping a trio of UFC cards in Las Vegas from Thursday to Saturday boasting a total of five title fights, was turned on its head.
The final fight of the bunch is what did it. The reaction to Jon Jones testing positive for two as-of-yet unknown banned substances was a manic one.
On Thursday morning, an emotional Jones offered apologies, denials but no explanations for his dismissal, which came after the US Anti-Doping Agency flagged a sample collected in June and apparently notified the UFC, for which it administers a stringent drug testing regime, the previous evening.
Behind the scenes, promoters scrambled to settle on a new main event and put together another fight for Cormier, which they did posthaste. UFC 200 went from a headliner featuring a talented and troubled light heavyweight, perhaps the best fighter in the history of MMA, vying to regain full control of the 205lb belt from his rival Daniel Cormier, to a non-title bout pitting UFC 100 veteran Brock Lesnar versus New Zealand heavyweight Mark Hunt, to a 135lb women’s title fight featuring Miesha Tate and Brazil’s Amanda Nunes.
