The 34-year-old Miocic captured the belt with a violent, first-round knockout of Brazilian Fabricio Werdum at UFC 198 in May.
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The pressure was high in the UFC’s first-ever pay-per-view in his native Cleveland, and Miocic delivered in a big way when he put out Overeem’s lights with a torrent of ground and pound.
Following the win against Overeem, Miocic jumped on top of the cage and led more than 18,000 fight fans in a chant of “O-H-I-O”. “I got hit up by a ton of people for tickets, and have been asked about after parties”. Miocic asked UFC commentator Joe Rogan afterward. He could really hurt me. “He had that guillotine, whatever”.
As Miocic managed to shrug off the unsafe submission hold and rose back to his feet, Overeem staggered his surging opponent once again by teeing off another stinging left jab and connecting with a well-timed kick to the midsection. But Miocic wasn’t going to be denied and was offended when he learned that Overeem had thought he tapped out. “In my opinion he tapped”. The reaction to his error was as you’d predict from someone attempting to bring down the hometown hero.
Didn’t see that one coming, did you? “Stipe was the better man today”, Overeem said.
“I can only say great things about this city – thank you, and until next time”, he managed.
It was going to be hard to follow the epic UFC 202 card last month but Dana White and company put on a good show featuring Alistair Overeem vs Stipe Miocic and CM Punk making his UFC debut against Mickey Gall in Cleveland. Unlike that fight, there would be little staring between the champ and the challenger. He also threw a counter left hand to back Miocic off, but Miocic absorbed the punch well and continued to pursue. Instead, he wound up on the chase. The Cleveland crowd roared as Miocic hammered Overeem with a right uppercut and another straight right moments later. He went on to call out Sage Northcutt, saying that in his next fight, he’d want to “punch the spikes out of his hair”. The second was the left hand that produced a wild scramble, with Overeem literally running to escape the counter. Miocic recovered and the fight resumed standing. Unless you won convincingly, you shouldn’t be confident in using the scorecards, and Eye didn’t do almost enough in the third round to get the win. Miocic was able to slip out and Overeem ran to the center of the octagon. The fight’s momentum was turning.
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Bantamweight prospect Jimmie Rivera won the biggest fight of his career when he won a decision against Urijah Faber at UFC 203. Eventually, the fight-ending punches found their way through. Punk had no choice but to tap his hand on the mat, ending the fight the way many inside UFC predicted.
