In the aftermath of UFC 230, are we rushing to give too much credit to the UFC heavyweight champ for winning a fight in which he was heavily favored from the start? Retired UFC and WEC fighter Danny Downes joins MMAjunkie columnist Ben Fowlkes to discuss in this week’s Trading Shots.

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Downes: Ben, last night’s UFC 230 main event went exactly how everyone with a brain expected it to. Daniel Cormier’s wrestling dominated Derrick Lewis’ lack of it from start to finish, leading to a second-round submission victory. The people who were surprised by that are probably also surprised when the Avengers save the planet.

I’m not here to spoil Daniel Cormier’s fun. I’m just here wondering why his win over Lewis made a lot of people out there want to throw him a victory parade.

You can make the argument that Cormier is one of the best UFC fighters ever, and I would agree with you. What happened last night, though, did nothing to add or subtract from that argument. He dominated a fighter everyone knew he would dominate. A few weeks ago, in his UFC 229 post-fight interview, Lewis even admitted he wasn’t ready for a title shot.

Cormier is a likable guy, but that doesn’t change the fact that this was one of the most underwhelming heavyweight title fights we’ve ever had, both in the buildup and the actual fight, itself. So besides both fighters earning a paycheck and revealing that Carl’s Jr. and Popeyes Chicken have a rivalry, what did we really learn this weekend?

Fowlkes: We learned that Cormier can stick to an obvious gameplan. We also learned that there’s levels to this here game. I guess both of those things we already knew, but still.

As much as I’d like to, just on principle, I can’t disagree with anything you’re saying. On paper and in practice, this was a pretty easy fight for Cormier. He might have been giving up some size, but he was the quicker man, the better athlete, and the better all-around fighter. His greatest strengths aligned perfectly with all Lewis’ greatest weaknesses.

He knew it too, which is probably the only reason he agreed to risk his heavyweight title, even though he couldn’t make a fist at the moment when the offer came through.

This fight always had the feeling like we were killing time, trying to amuse ourselves while we wait for the Brock Lesnar train to pull into the station again.

And, on that level, wasn’t the fight a success? You had two charismatic guys. You had a fast-food proxy war. You had a heavyweight title fight as the main event for a fight card that desperately needed one. Would you have rather had Valentina Shevchenko vs. Sijara Eubanks?

Downes: We started potty training my son yesterday. Looks like he has the second biggest pile I have to clean up this weekend. I’m glad you brought up Eubanks vs. Shevchenko. It proves there wasn’t a grand strategy here. It was a thrown-together main event because they wanted to strike while Lewis’ balls were hot.

Being better than bad doesn’t automatically make something good. You don’t have to pay $64.99 for a UFC pay-per-view, but a lot of fans do. Making mediocrity the new measuring stick doesn’t help anyone. Pretending last night’s main event was a tremendous display of Cormier’s abilities instead of a fait accompli further erodes the expectations fans and media should have.

The Sylvester Stallone movie “Demolition Man” was on a couple nights ago, so I decided to watch it. It had a likable cast, enjoyable action scenes, and even some Taco Bell. All in all it was a nice way to pass a couple hours. I’m not going to pretend it was “Citizen Kane,” though.

As for what’s next for Cormier, a showdown with Lesnar makes a lot of sense. The fact that it’s a viable option for Lesnar to challenge for the heavyweight title is an indictment on the division. Both thoughts can exist simultaneously.

MMA is a sport of personalities, so there’s a tendency to make the narrative match how we feel about the fighter. It’s why Colby Covington doesn’t get the credit he deserves for his current winning streak and Cormier is dubbed the GOAT because he takes a warmup fight. If you take your personal fondness for Cormier away, doesn’t it change your assessment of UFC 230?

Fowlkes: Maybe this whole thing bothered me less because I always felt like I knew exactly what to expect. Obviously, Cormier wasn’t going to risk his title and his monster payday on short notice against a seriously threatening opponent – especially not with a bad hand and a back injured by a sneeze gone wrong.

Cormier accepted Lewis because he knew he could beat him. Lewis accepted it because it was a chance to get majorly paid. We accepted it because we had nothing better to do, because we wanted to be entertained, and maybe because we wondered whether or not the powers that be were taking too much for granted and were just begging for a violent surprise.

One thing I’m not going to do is get mad at Cormier for it. I get it – this win didn’t prove anything about him that we didn’t already know. But what we know is that he’s one of the greatest fighters alive, one who may be second only to MMA’s brilliant problem child Jon Jones. We also know he has a limited amount of time left on the meter. I can’t get too upset at seeing him squeeze in another fight, and one that he utterly dominates.

Plus, UFC 230 had enough other excitement (did you even see that man Ronaldo Souza out there doing his thing?) that it felt like a worthwhile way to spend a Saturday night.

Yes, heavyweight is in shambles, as it often is. And yes, waiting around for Lesnar’s doping suspension to end just so we can give him an automatic title shot tells us a lot about what’s really going on. It’s important for us to understand that.

But once we see it for what it is, maybe then we ought relax and appreciate the good stuff that’s buried in the mess. Even a predictable murder death kill can sometimes be solid entertainment as long as we keep it in perspective.

Ben Fowlkes is MMAjunkie and USA TODAY’s MMA columnist. Danny Downes, a retired UFC and WEC fighter, is an MMAjunkie contributor who has also written for UFC.com and UFC 360. Follow them on twitter at @benfowlkesMMA and @dannyboydownes.