Both of these fighters seem to be getting better with age and for Miocic it’s his first title defence, so another big moment for him in his UFC career. On Saturday, he made sure the curse stayed buried.
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Stipe Miocic got the chance of a lifetime Saturday night as he defended his UFC heavyweight title in his hometown of Cleveland in the main event of UFC 203 against Alistair Overeem.
The victor of his last four fights, Overeem has 41 wins total, 20 by knockout, 17 by submission.
Home favourite Stipe Miocic will be looking to defend his UFC title after spectacularly winning it back at UFC 198, when he knocked out Fabricio Werdum in the first round.
After Overeem was put away by Miocic’s punches in last night’s headliner, he claimed to UFC commentator Joe Rogan that the champ had tapped to his guillotine.
“He’s definitely ready”, said Bojan Miocic, Stipe’s younger brother.
Overeem can out-kick Miocic easily from the outside, but can also land some powerful game-changing knees if things move closer into a clinch. I’ve trained too hard to give up my title.
“Everywhere I go – every time I do an appearance – I have a coach or training partner with me”, he said.
In the final minute of the round, Miocic stunned Overeem with a punch and then held him down and delivered four devastating right-handed punches to the challenger’s head to finish him off. Overeem keeps circling out.
Miocic never blinks. His best punch is an uppercut to punctuate one of his combinations (2:37) as he tries to catch Overeem circling around. He managed to grab a retreating Overeem’s leg and dump him, which set up the deciding sequence.
Miocic’s right hand has done the majority of the work to get him to where he is now. Overeem said. “People are very friendly and very open”.
But Overeem has proven he will be no walkover, with key wins against the likes of Junior dos Santos, Brock Lesnar, as well as Arlovski and Werdum.
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Mecklemburg, who traveled with Miocic to Brazil where he won his UFC Championship belt, said it’s been great to watch Miocic’s fan base explode. Overeem knocked him out in the opening round of his UFC debut fight. I’ve heard good things about Micky Gall and this is CM Punk’s first ever fight on the big stage of the UFC – I think Micky will win this fight and I’m expecting to see a TKO or a submission of CM Punk. In terms of striking differential, however, Overeem takes the edge; on a per-minute basis, “The Reem” lands 2.12 significant strikes more than his opponents, compared with a 1.62 differential for Miocic.
