Daniel Cormier is not a fan of how MMA takedowns are scored.
Dvalishvili (21-4 MMA, 14-2 UFC) went 20-47 in takedown attempts in his successful bantamweight title defense against Cory Sandhagen at UFC 320 earlier this month.
Sandhagen (18-6 MMA, 11-5 UFC) called Dvalishvili’s style a “gamey way to win,” and said it’s a wrestling takedown, not an MMA one if you can’t keep someone down and control them. Cormier says Sandhagen is technically wrong, but correct in being frustrated with how takedowns are scored in MMA.
“Cory Sandhagen is a little bit off in his assessment of what was happening,” Cormier said on “Good Guy/Bad Guy” with Chael Sonnen. “What he got done to him was MMA takedowns. It doesn’t score in wrestling. When Khabib got 24 takedowns, those are MMA takedowns. They don’t score in wrestling. What Merab did to Cory multiple times was mat returns. He mat returned him.
“He never broke his lock, he always had his hands locked. When Cory got up, he would pick him up and he would put him back down to the mat, and because Cory stood on his feet and got taken back down to the ground with control, it’s counted as a takedown. I have long had a problem with how they score mixed martial arts takedowns.”
In Cormier’s eyes, Dvalishvili only landed a few legitimate takedowns.
“The MMA takedown is a problem, the way they score takedowns is the problem,” Cormier said. “A takedown should be when you go to the mat. A takedown should not be when you get back up, and a guy picks you up and just puts you back down. He never lost control. … Merab didn’t get 20 takedowns. Merab probably got five or six takedowns, and he got 14 mat returns.”
