Rich Franklin's brother Greg was the referee. Right off the start, Cormier threw a kick and Bigfoot bumrushed him without success. Then out of nowhere, Cormier landed a huge looping right and dropped Bigfoot. Cormer decided not to jump into Silva's guard and stepped back. Silva got up, and ate a big left hand that staggered him 10 seconds later. Cormer rocked him again with a right, and Silva decided to shoot on the Olympic wrestler. Without success, obviously. Silva ended up on his back, but Cormier let him up again. It was all Cormier in the first half of the round.
Silva threw a kick, but Cormier caught it and sweep-kicked him to the ground. Cormier landed a few light kicks to the legs, then let Silva up again. Silva tried to land some big shots, but they all missed. Cormier then landed a monster uppercut that dropped Silva like a sack of laundry, followed up with two more shots, and the referee stepped in. Amazing, amazing performance from Cormier.
Daniel Cormier entered the tournament as a replacement for Alistair Overeem, who was removed from the tournament due to an injury, dropped from Strikeforce, and eventually signed by the UFC. Silva was coming off a huge win over Fedor Emelianenko to get him into the semis.