Now Overeem believes he’s poised to be the next heavyweight champion, but there’s one problem: Cleveland’s Stipe Miocic will die to defend his home turf. On Saturday, he made sure the curse stayed buried.
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And few heavyweight fights delivered whirlwind action like Stipe Miocic’s UFC heavyweight title defense against Alistair Overeem on Saturday night in Cleveland. The first meeting between the pair was back in 2014 where Werdum won via unanimous decision. A former Strikeforce and K-1 kickboxing champion, Overeem (41-15) dropped Miocic with a left hand in the opening moments and immediately went for a guillotine.
After speaking to the reigning champion, Rogan turned his attentions to a visibly shaken Overeem who made a freakish suggestion that he felt his opponent tap to a guillotine choke earlier in the round but that the referee hadn’t seen it.
It was a thunderous collision between the two heavyweights, with Miocic stopping the fight in the first round. “I didn’t get to the summit tonight but it doesn’t mean I’m going to give up, it doesn’t mean I’m going anywhere, it doesn’t mean I’m going to stop”. I was training every day. Overeem has won four straight, three by KO. Then, Miocic rained down several punches, bouncing Overeem’s head off the canvas twice before he was knocked out.
“He hit harder than I thought, he knocked me down but I wasn’t hurt”.
And Overeem, the 36-year old native of Holland, plans on making Miocic pay for enjoying life outside of The Octagon. He managed to grab a retreating Overeem’s leg and dump him, which set up the deciding sequence. Stipe Miocic survived a flurry early in the first round when Alistair Overreem clipped him with a tough right hook and tried to lock in a guillotine choke.
Well if you like combat sports in any form or love cheering for OH athletes, then the main event should interest you.
“People here are lovely”, Overeem said. “He’s tough.” Originally from Amsterdam, Overeem suffered his first loss since September 2014. He’s been in great form since joining the UFC, winning all three of his fights so far.
Miocic got it together pretty quickly and the fight returned to a vertical base, where both men are at their most comfortable.
For Miocic, his next opponents could be former champion Cain Velasquez (14-2) or Werdum (21-6-1).
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Fabricio Werdum opened up with a leaping sidekick in his co-main event clash with Travis Browne, but unfortunately, the freaky rematch didn’t live up to what fans had hoped for.
