CLEVELAND – Heavyweight title remains in the hand of Stipe Miocic as he managed to knock out Alistair Overeem in front of the home crowd in Ohio at UFC 203.
Miocic completely ruined his opponent with the series of punches in the first round, to claim the knockout triumph.
The Cleveland crowd saluted Miocic with boisterous shouts even before he had entered the Octagon. The crowd in the Quicken Loans Arena chanted his name to the sounds of Machine Gun Kelly – one of the hometown most cherished.
However, Overeem came out strong, as he punched the heavyweight champion with a stiff left hand, which caused Miocic to fall to the ground. The crowd was silenced immediately. Miocic continued to tussle, and he managed to get up eventually, as the people sighed with relief.
This seemed to rage Miocic because after that he was unstoppable. He ambushed Overeem across the cage and threw a series of punches, displaying his boxing qualities. Every time Miocic managed to trick his opponent, he hit him continually which was too much for Overeem.
Anyway, Miocic seized his opportunity and finished the fight on the scramble with the takedown after Overeem, unfortunately, slipped during an exchange of punches. When he fell, Overeem managed to defend some of the hits but after a short time, he was helpless.
The referee had to interfere and stop the battle because Overeem fell unconscious after a devastating punch in the jaw.
After only 4:27 the match was stopped.
The crowd was on their feet, and Miocic took the microphone from the commentator Joe Rogan and yelled:”O-H” and the crowd replied: “I-O.” This is some sort of a custom in Cleveland, and it can be heard in many athletic events.
After the fight, Miocic stated: “He hit harder than I thought, he knocked me down but I wasn’t hurt. I said I would keep this belt for a long time, and I did it. I wanted to shut him down, turn the motherboard off.”
Overeem accepted the defeat, but he claimed that the fight was controversial. Rogan was told to check again whether Miocic tapped out during his choke attempt, but after re-watching, it appeared that everything was done by the book.
Anyhow, Overeem congratulated Miocic on a deserved victory and at the end of the day he stated: “Stipe was the better man today. He’s a great athlete, he’s tough, he won the fight. I thought he tapped.”
Miocic has added one more victory to the winning streak. Most likely his next championship battle will be against the former number one Cain Velasquez.
