UFC 200 results: Brock Lesnar beats Mark Hunt and Amanda Nunes defeats Miesha Tate to win bantamweight title

After 23 years and over 362 events, the UFC staged their landmark 200th pay-per-view show at the new T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, with a fight card that was stacked from top to bottom with title fights, big name stars and more dream bouts than even the more optimistic fight fan could have ever imagined.

The event had been thrown into turmoil earlier in the week when the Jon Jones failed a drugs tests and had to be removed from the main event. On the night, this was the furthest thing from anyone's mind and the 20,000 fans that filled every seat in building were hardly left feeling short changed with a night of great fights and new champions.

Amanda Nunes def. Miesha Tate via submission (rear-naked choke) - Round 1, 3:16

After the Jon Jones drama earlier in the week, the historic UFC 200 card was headlined by a UFC women’s bantamweight title fight with the champion Miesha Tate facing the challenger Amanda Nunes.

While it may have been unthinkable to fights fans that this bout would have headlined the show a few weeks ago, as the only legitimate title fight left on the card it only made sense from the UFC’s perspective to place it in the headline spot.

Tate was making her first title defence since winning the belt back in March against Holly Holm and walked to the Octagon to sound of Katie Perry ‘Roar’. With both fighters introduced the action then got underway.

Round one opened with Tate taking the centre of the Octagon. Nunes got the better of the opening exchange with a nice counter right but Tate responded by nearly taking her down. Tate then tried for another takedown and was punished by a big knee to the face.

From there, it was all downhill for the champion as Nunes then noticed Tate was rocked from the knee and proceeded to pour on the strikes to bloody the face of the champion and hurt her badly.

After a further flurry of crisp, accurate strikes, Tate dropped to her knees. Nunes then methodically moved in for the kill and hit Tate with a few more strikes before taking her back and sinking in a rear-naked choke to get the submission victory after just 3 minutes 16 seconds of round one.

It was a shocking end to the pay-per-view as Nunes had her hand raised in the centre of the Octagon and the UFC women’s bantamweight title belt strapped around her waist.

Brock Lesnar def. Mark Hunt via unanimous decision (29-27, 29-27, 29-27)

The build up to UFC 200 contained more surprises than possibly imaginable, but perhaps the biggest twist in the tale came at UFC 199 in June when it was announced that the former UFC heavyweight champion and current WWE Superstar Brock Lesnar would be returning to the Octagon.

Before last evening, Lesnar hadn’t competed in mixed martial arts 2011 when at UFC 141 he took on Alistair Overeem and lost via TKO. Having suffered from the debilitating effects of diverticulitis in the latter stages of his last UFC run, Lesnar always felt an urge to return to the Octagon to prove that he was better than the performances he showed in his last few outings.

The man facing him last night, Mark ‘The Super Samoan’ Hunt had his own ideas though and the former UFC heavyweight title challenger looked calmness personified as he walked to the Octagon. Lesnar, on the other hand, walked into the arena bouncing up and down with ‘Enter Sandman’ by Metallica blaring out over the speakers.

With the crowd going absolutely insane, the two men touched gloves and the fight got underway.

The fight, for the most part, was a little lacklustre given the build-up. In the first round nothing much happened until the latter half when Lesnar took Hunt down on two occasions and controlled him on the ground scoring with some infrequent ground and pound.

In round two, Hunt managed to avoid being taken down and won it by landing a few right hands. The fight was to be decided by round three and Hunt started well landing a right hand. Lesnar, however, took it well and took Hunt down with three and a half minutes remaining.

From there, Lesnar controlled Hunt, smothering him and landing ground and pound in side control and then full mount before finishing the round on top and clearly taking the fight.

To the surprise of no one, all three judges scored the fight 29-27 to Lesnar who made a winning return in a largely unentertaining affair.

Speaking afterwards, Lesnar declined to comment on whether it was a one-off return and instead took the time to pay tribute to the men and women in the US service.

Light Heavyweight: (c) Daniel Cormier vs. Anderson Silva- Non-title bout

After a crazy week where Daniel Cormier had his dream fight with Jon Jones taken away from him, he last night got the opportunity to live out another dream when he took one of the greatest fighters of all time, the legendary, Anderson Silva.

Coming into the fight on just three days notice, it had to be said the Brazilian didn’t look in great shape with his usual lean torso noticeably carrying more body fat than usual.

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Conditioning ultimately ended up having a big say in the fight as Cormier used his superior size and body weight to take the Brazilian down at will and dominate him from top position. The fight went the distance but Cormier dominated almost the entire fifteen minutes with his grinding style just too much for the Brazilian to handle, especially on such short notice.

Cormier’s strategy of taking Silva down and grinding him wasn’t a style that won many of the hearts in the crowd who cheered every infrequent moment where it looked like Silva was in the fight. Cormier was roundly booed every time he took the Brazilian down and while he may have won the fight, there was only really one winner of the crowd’s adulation.

When the fight was over, Silva was paraded around the Octagon on his coaches’ shoulders as the crowd showed the appreciation to their Brazilian hero for saving the day and fighting on just three days notice. As expected, Cormier took the unanimous decision 30-27 on all three scorecards.

Jose Aldo def. Frankie Edgar via unanimous decision (49-46, 49-46, 48-47)

The first of two title fights on the UFC 200 card was an interim UFC featherweight title fight between the former champion Jose Aldo and the former UFC lightweight champion Frankie Edgar.

The bout was a rematch from their UFC 156 title fight when Aldo successfully defended his featherweight belt edging a close decision. Three years down the line, the two were fighting for an interim belt due to the current title holder Conor McGregor being preoccupied with fighting Nate Diaz for the second time at UFC 202 in August.

With the winner of the bout expected to face McGregor later in the year, the stakes couldn’t have been higher for a fight that hardly needed any dressing up in the first place.

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As many had predicted, the fight went the full five rounds with both fighters very evenly matched. The story of the fight saw Edgar pressuring as Aldo stayed on the back foot counter using left and right hooks to punish Edgar with pinpoint accuracy. On multiple occasions throughout the five rounds, Edgar attempted to take Aldo down but every single time he was stuffed and punished.

Edgar had his moments, most notably in round three when he landed a left hook to briefly stun the Brazilian. Aldo rallied well though and for the most part controlled the fight on the back foot.

With twenty-five minutes in the bag, the fight went to the judges who gave the fight to Jose Aldo via a unanimous decision 49-46, 49-46, 48-47 to make him the new UFC interim featherweight champion of the world.

Speaking in the Octagon afterwards to Joe Rogan, Aldo said he'd like nothing more than a rematch with the current featherweight title holder Conor McGregor.

Cain Velasquez def. Travis Browne via TKO (punches) - Round 1, 4:57

In UFC heavyweight action, former champion Cain Velasquez took on Travis Browne to open up the main card portion of the UFC 200 fight card.

Velasquez faced Travis Browne who came into the fight riding high off a big win in January to Matt Mitrione. With the current heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic watching on from cageside, neither man hung around and got straight into it from the first bell.

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In round one, both men traded jabs and leg kicks before Velasquez clinched Browne up against the cage for a brief period. Velasquez then had jaws on the floor as he threw a spinning heel kick that just glanced the top of Browne’s head.

With Browne stunned Velasquez dropped him with a punch and then laid on a ground assault looking for the finish. Browne bravely made it back to his feet but he was rocked again by another jab and wrestled to the mat.

With only seconds remaining in the first round, Browne was flat on his front and Velasquez rained down punches to get the stoppage with only three seconds left before the round was out.

It was a highly impressive performance by Velasquez who will no doubt believe he is well and truly back in title contention.

In the prelim bouts …

The UFC Fight Pass portion of the card kicked off at a furious pace with wins for Jim Miller, Gegard Mousasi and Joe Lauzon all recorded in just 8 minutes and 16 seconds of Octagon action.

On the prelims, ‘Super’ Sage Northcutt got back to winning ways with a decision victory over Spaniard Enrique Marin, while former UFC bantamweight champion TJ Dillashaw likely earned himself a rematch with titleholder Dominick Cruz with a unanimous decision victory over Raphael Assuncao.

The preliminary card closed up with unanimous decision wins for Kelvin Gastelum and Julianna Pena before the main card kicked into action.

Main Card

Amanda Nunes def. Miesha Tate via submission (rear-naked choke) - Round 1, 3:16

Brock Lesnar def. Mark Hunt via unanimous decision (29-27, 29-27, 29-27)

Daniel Cormier def. Anderson Silva via unanimous decision (30-26, 30-26, 30-26)

Jose Aldo def. Frankie Edgar via unanimous decision (49-46, 49-46, 48-47)

Cain Velasquez def. Travis Browne via TKO (punches) - Round 1, 4:57

Preliminary Card

Julianna Pena def. Cat Zingano via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)

Kelvin Gastelum def. Johny Hendricks via unanimous decision (29-28, 30-27, 30-27)

T.J. Dillashaw def. Raphael Assuncao via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)

Sage Northcutt def. Enrique Marin via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)

Early Preliminary Card

Joe Lauzon def. Diego Sanchez via TKO (punches) - Round 1, 1:26

Gegard Mousasi def. Thiago "Marreta" Santos via knockout (punches) - Round 1, 4:32

Jim Miller def. Takanori Gomi via TKO (punches) - Round 1, 2:18