Considering how he overcame an early knockdown from the Dutch kickboxer and then knocked him cold with ground-and-pound, Miocic has designs on keeping the UFC gold for a long time, perhaps until he dies. On Saturday, he made sure the curse stayed buried.
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Miocic won the belt at UFC 198, when he defeated Fabricio Werdum. Prior to squaring off against Miocic, fans saw the Dutchman walk away with a violent second round knockout over former champion Andrei Arlovski.
Alistair Overeem (right) punches Brock Lesnar (left) during UFC 141 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on December 30, 2011 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
“He’s definitely ready”, said Bojan Miocic, Stipe’s younger brother.
Overeem circles a lot to start, forcing Miocic to chase him. Not only did he finally get his title shot, but Miocic, fighting in enemy territory, broke the Cleveland curse and, with yet another right-hand knockout, captured UFC championship gold. Just being out there under the lights was the most fun I’ve ever had and to say it again, the second best day of my life.
Miocic (15-2) is making his first title defense in his current hometown. Overeem lands a hard body kick and then runs out of the way out of a head kick. “He put me on my ass, and that guillotine – I trained to get out of it”. After a shorting feeling out process, Overeem took the outside as he circled away from Miocic’s lead left hand.
UFC 203 is here with a heavyweight championship fight and one of the most anticipated debuts in the company’s history. “He’s a great athlete”.
“I enjoy all energy”, Overeem said. During the last period Alistair won four victories in a row over Struve, Nelson dos Santos and Orlovsky.
Congratulations to Cleveland! You still have a UFC heavyweight champion and it was in a fight that was simultaneously exciting, crazy, stupid, and dramatic.
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The co-main event of UFC 203 features another heavyweight bout, in this case Brazilian Fabricio Werdum (20-6-1) takes on USA’s Travis Browne (18-4-1); this fight is a rematch of the event that took place back in April 2014 when Werdum was declared the victor by Unanimous Decision. Fabricio Werdum vs Travis Browne sorta got lost in the shuffle but had implications at the heavyweight division.
