Amanda Nunes, Brock Lesnar lift UFC 200 from darkness to light
In the 72 hours between the UFC’s despair over a suspension that cost the organization a main-event fighter to the completion of UFC 200, everything changed.
The loss of troubled former light-heavyweight champion Jon Jones, who’d tested positive for a banned substance, was replaced by the joy of new women’s bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes.
Not only did Nunes stun Miesha Tate via first-round submission in the revised main event, she delivered a stirring, resonating response when asked about being the first openly gay champion fighter.
For former heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar, the mountainous obstacle of being an underdog didn’t prove too daunting after all, perhaps returning another lively personality to the sport.
And the uncertainty of where proud former Brazilian featherweight champion Jose Aldo’s career stood after a 13-second knockout loss in December was answered convincingly by Aldo’s five rounds of punishment on former lightweight champion Frankie Edgar.
“My chin is fine. I let the goatee grow so it’d be a little more stylish,” Aldo (26-2) cracked. “There were no ghosts.”
Aldo received more uplifting news after his unanimous-decision victory when UFC President Dana White said brash Irishman Conor McGregor, the man who knocked out Aldo eight months earlier, is ordered to take a rematch with Aldo after McGregor’s welterweight rematch with Nate Diaz on Aug. 20.
“We can fight right now, and if he doesn’t show up [later this year], I’m going to see him somewhere else to fight him,” Aldo said.
The revived feel of UFC 200 – which produced an organization-record $10.7-million live gate -- carried over to the post-fight news conference most vividly in an exchange between Nunes and USA Today reporter Martin Rogers, when he asked her about her girlfriend, UFC straw-weight Nina Ansaroff.
“Nina is the best training partner I’ve ever had.… She means everything to me. This girl, she helped me live again,” Nunes said with Ansaroff looking on from the rear of the room.
“She’s gonna cry … I love her.”
The moment moved Nunes’ Brazilian countrymen on the dais, Aldo and former middleweight champion Anderson Silva, while light-heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier and former heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez smiled.
In an earlier session with reporters, there was even some genuine emotion from WWE headliner Lesnar, who returned from a five-year absence from nonscripted sport to out-wrestle and pound the favored Mark Hunt with a slew of ground punches in a unanimous-decision triumph.
“I’ve been out of the game five years, people,” Lesnar said. “To step into the octagon with a guy ranked No. 8 in the world, you can write what you want, but I think I’m the toughest [guy] … there’s not a guy in the division I can’t take down. I’m a top-10 guy, it puts me right in the game, and if I want to make that decision to fight again, I will.
“I’m a 39-year-old man and I’m pretty proud of myself.”
Lesnar said in a video introduction segment before fighting Hunt that he couldn’t have imagined how he could have not returned to the octagon. So how can he walk away now, despite some contractual obligations to WWE?
“My body’s feeling pretty good,” he said. “Never say never.”
As for UFC 200’s other bouts, Cormier was strangely booed by the 18,202 in attendance at T-Mobile Arena after relying on his Olympic-caliber wrestling to win a unanimous decision over Silva, who replaced Jones for a three-round, non-title fight.
Afterward, Cormier explained he went straight from the news conference for Jones’ positive test to a workout in the hope a new opponent would be given him.
When it came to the fight, Cormier said he “did what I had to do” to eliminate the famed standup strikes, knees and kicks that Silva relied on to keep the middleweight belt from 2006-2013 and delivered in the last two minutes of the final round.
Cormier said he expects to next defend his belt against the winner of the Aug. 20 Anthony Johnson-Glover Teixeira bout.
Velasquez knocked out Travis Browne in the first round and is poised to fight the Sept. 10 winner of champion Stipe Miocic’s first title defense over Alistair Overeem.
Nunes’ victory was handled in just 3 minutes, 16 seconds. She likely broke Tate’s nose with multiple hard, precise punches, then made her tap out in a rear naked chokehold. That made her the third new champion in the division since November.
The depth of the women’s bantamweight division is stunning now. Venice’s Ronda Rousey has lost to Holly Holm, who’s lost to Tate, who lost to Nunes, who’s lost to Cat Zingano, who lost Saturday against Julianna Pena.
While Rousey is said to be less than 50/50 to make it to the UFC’s November debut card at Madison Square Garden, White has said her return bout will be against “whoever has the belt.”
Surprisingly, refreshingly, that’s Nunes.
Follow Lance Pugmire on Twitter @latimespugmire
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