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Cormier wins, but Silva remains the people’s champion

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L.E. Baskow

Anderson Silva takes another punch to the face while being dominated on the canvas by Daniel Cormier during UFC 200.

When the final bell rang, referee John McCarthy pulled Daniel Cormier off Anderson Silva.

It was the only way Silva could get Cormier off him in the three-round light heavyweight bout at UFC 200 on Saturday night at T-Mobile Arena.

Cormier dominated every round, imposing his Olympic-level wrestling on the smaller Silva en route to a 30-26 unanimous decision.

But while Cormier still has the UFC light heavyweight belt around his waist, Silva was clearly the people’s champion.

Immediately after the fight, Silva’s coaches hoisted him onto their shoulders and paraded him around the ring to a roaring cheer from the record crowd of 18,202.

Meanwhile, Cormier walked to his corner to the tune of thousands of boos.

During Cormier’s post-fight interview with Joe Rogan, the boos nearly drowned out the champion’s answers.

“I can’t really try to dictate people’s emotions,” Cormier said. “I can only take care of what I can take care of. People don’t understand the situation that I’m in, and what I’ve been through over the last week.”

Cormier was scheduled to defend his belt against Jon Jones until Jones was pulled from the fight Wednesday after the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency flagged him for a possible doping violation.

With less than three days until the fight, Silva stepped up to replace Jones.

“Anderson did this on two days' notice, and he went out there and fought as hard as he could,” Cormier said. “All the respect to him.”

Cormier said that after training with a game plan in mind for a specific opponent for months, the last-minute switch threw him off.

“It would have been catastrophic if I would have lost tonight, because I would still be the champion but would have lost to a guy that would probably go down to middleweight and challenge for the belt,” Cormier said.

The negative fan reaction was spurred by Cormier’s smothering wrestling style; he held Silva down for much of the fight.

“I would say to you, ‘You go stand in front of Anderson Silva for 15 minutes if you have the ability to take him down,’” Cormier said to a reporter. “I stood in there a little bit and we traded shots a few times, and a couple times I went back to the way I fought against (Alexander) Gustafsson where he would hit me and I’d want to hit him back, but you have to be smarter than that.”

Cormier, who was once captain of the USA wrestling team, took Silva down at will, landing every takedown he attempted.

“I have to wrestle. It’s what I do. I wrestle,” Cormier said. “The circumstances under which this fight came together, it was difficult. How do I win? You don’t just knock Anderson Silva out in one minute or two minutes; he’s too good for that.”

Silva said he was in the middle of a vacation when he decided to fill in for the fight.

“I really hadn’t trained at all. Not once,” Silva said. “When I found out that Jon Jones wasn’t going to fight anymore, I called my manager and told him I wanted to test myself. Everyone at home and all my kids went crazy saying that I was crazy for doing it.”

In the brief exchanges on the feet Silva looked like his old self, throwing flashy kicks and knees. The former champion even had Cormier hurt with a body shot in the third round.

“I’ve had ups and downs in the sport and really I just wanted to come in here and do what I love to do,” Silva said.

Now that Cormier survived this turbulent weekend, he remains the champion at light heavyweight and will defend his belt in his next bout, which he believes will be against the winner of Anthony Johnson and Glover Teixiera, who fight Aug. 20.

“Well, I’m not going to wait two years for Jon; I’m 37 years old” Cormier said, referencing a possible two-year suspension that Jones could face for the doping violation.

As for Silva, he said he will likely return to middleweight and would love a rematch with champion Michael Bisping, who defeated Silva by unanimous decision Feb. 27.

Silva did leave the door open, saying he would take any big fight at either weight class.

“I never fought for the money and I didn’t accept this fight for the money,” Silva said. “This is our work so obviously we have to get paid for it, but this is what I love to do. This is the air that I breathe.”

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