Ronda Rousey, Daniel Cormier Victorious at UFC 170

As winter Olympians closed out the games in Sochi, summer Olympian Ronda Rousey closed out her fellow medalist Sara McMann in Las Vegas at UFC 170.

The bronze-medal-winning judoka made short work of the silver-medal-winning wrestler with a liver-shot knee coming around the one-minute mark of round one. The win, Rousey’s fourth defense of the strap she initially won in Strikeforce, moves the women’s bantamweight champion to to 9-0. McMann falls to 7-1. This weekend, Cris “Cyborg” Justino, the only women’s fighter considered to be on an equal plane as Rousey, announced her intention to drop from 145 pounds to face the 135-pound UFC champion. 

The co-main event also featured an Olympian, Daniel Cormier, who made his 205-pound debut after dropping from heavyweight. The heavy-handed wrestler similarly disposed of his opponent, UFC newcomer (and eleventh-hour replacement for an injured Rashad Evans) Patrick Cummins. Cormier let his hands fly and Cummins let his body drop. Referee Mario Yamasaki halted the action at 1:19 of the first round.

Cormier, who has defeated a murderer’s row of heavyweights–Frank Mir, Josh Barnett, Antonio “Big Foot” Silva–cut weight in response to his friend, Cain Velasquez, owning the UFC’s heavyweight championship. The Slim-Fast Skelator Cormier hopes to challenge UFC light heavyweight champion Jon “Bones” Jones sometime in then next year. His performance helped make his case. His level of opposition argued against it.

Other scraps witnessed Rory MacDonald bounce back from a loss to Robbie Lawler with a decision victory over Brazilian jujitsu ace Demian Maia and Mike Pyle ground-and-pound T.J. Waldburger to a third-round stoppage.