UFC 230: What happened when Derrick Lewis challenged Daniel Cormier for the Heavyweight title?

UFC 230 took place from New York City on November 3, 2018. The card served up a tasty headliner between Heavyweight champion, Daniel Cormier in his first title defence versus Derrick Lewis who had earned his shot just one month earlier at UFC 229.

Lewis seemed a dangerous opponent for Cormier due to his incredible punching power. The world knew if Cormier was to win, it had to be on the ground.

That's exactly what happened. Cormier forced Lewis to the ground after landing a few knees with the "Black Beast" in a headlock and manoeuvred his challenger into a rear naked choke. That brought the tap out and Cormier had successfully defended his belt.

There was no Brock Lesnar post-fight confrontation this time. However, the Cormier/Lesnar bout remains a possibility in 2019.

So, too, does a clash with Cain Velasquez. For those who believe Cormier is done, he still has some marquee fights left in him before he rides into the sunset. Jon Jones is circling as well.

Derrick Lewis rocks the champion

The co-headliner was a hastily put together bout as it had originally been scheduled to be a rematch between Chris Weidman and Luke Rockhold. That would have been a fascinating encounter, given Rockhold inflicted Weidman's first ever career defeat and Weidman has never been the same since.

Jacare Souza got the nod instead as a late replacement and it was he, who earned what is probably the biggest win of his UFC tenure.

It was an incredibly entertaining affair that saw Weidman win the first two rounds with confident striking combinations.

However, the third round saw Jacare up the tempo and begin brawling wildly. Weidman unwisely lost his composure and responded in kind, turning the fight into a brutal fistfight.

Jacare smashed Weidman with a massive blow that seemed to knock Weidman out. For some reason, the referee refused to call the bout and Jacare somewhat reluctantly unloaded with a few more punches before the bout was stopped.

Jacare is now in line for a title shot in 2019 whereas Weidman has a lot of reassessing to do. Will his career end in 2019? Or can he fight back and become the Weidman of old once more?

Chris Weidman is a defeated man

Jared Cannonier earned a TKO win over David Branch in another hastily re-arranged bout as Jacare was originally scheduled to fight Branch before he was inserted into the co-headliner. Cannonier caught Branch with a brutal knockout punch to earn the upset win.

Elsewhere, Karl Robertson won an average bout versus Jack Marshman in an encounter as his striking game largely kept Marshman at bay. He never looked close to finishing him though which is what made the contest feel largely anti-climatic.

The main card opener saw Israel Adesanya cut through Derek Brunson as he continued to take UFC by storm. He smashed through Brunson with an incredible display of sick striking culminating in a brutal head kick hat put Brunson down for the count. Big things lie ahead for Adesanya in 2019.

That was UFC 230. The run-up to the show was a bit of a mess with the re-arranged bouts but the show delivered on the action on the night. It was a minor success on pay per view too, drawing 250,000 pay per view buys. A massive come down from UFC 229 but that is understandable.