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Cleveland’s UFC champ looks to keep his title
By John Chechitelli
CLEVELAND
UFC fans in northeastern Ohio, the wait is finally over. Nearly 23 years after the Ultimate Fighting Championship was created, the world’s leading mixed martial arts organization makes its first stop in Cleveland with UFC 203 tonight at Quicken Loans Arena.
In the main event, Cleveland’s own Stipe Miocic defends his heavyweight title for the first time against a dangerous Dutchman in Alistair Overeem.
If the name Stipe Miocic looks too intimidating to say, it’s fitting. Pronounced “Stee-pay Me-oh-chich,” the 6-foot-4. 240-pound former Division I wrestler (and third baseman) for Cleveland State, has used a bruising but balanced style of boxing and grappling to rack up 12 knockouts and a 15-2 overall record.
Miocic, a first generation American of Croatian descent, is everything you would expect from an Ohio-born warrior. He’s tough as nails, has an amazing work ethic, a slightly offbeat sense of humor and absolute appreciation for his humble Buckeye roots.
After delivering a first-round knockout blow to take the title from Fabricio Werdum on May 14 in Brazil, Miocic shouted into a microphone with an infectious smile over 5,000 miles from his home, “Cleveland, we got a championship, baby!” A month later, he hoisted his gold belt through the streets of the Forest City, leading the Cavaliers in their own championship parade. Then, he quietly went back to work, not only training for his next fight, but also as a part-time firefighter and paramedic with the Oakwood Village and Valley View fire departments.
Still, Overeem believes the champion has been celebrating too much and is ripe to fall. As formidable a foe as any, the mountain of muscle they call “The Reem” comes to Cleveland with intentions of adding a UFC belt to an already impressive resume. He has won numerous titles in other organizations as well as 41 career victories and more than double the amount of stoppage wins than Miocic has total fights.
Leaving the Q with the strap around his waist will be quite a challenge for the newly crowned heavyweight king, but it’s one that Miocic is confident he can hit out of the park.
“I’m not giving this belt up,” he told Fox Sports this week. “I’m keeping it for a long time. I worked too [expletive] hard to give it up.”
As are all UFC main events, tonight’s heavyweight title tilt is scheduled for five, five-minute rounds but going by each man’s history inside the Octagon, this one doesn’t seem likely to reach the judges’ scorecards.
Rest of the card
Unlike most one-note boxing events, UFC cards are often stacked with multiple must-see matchups that could end up earning each competitor a $50,000 fight of the night bonus. With 11 bouts in total, UFC 203 is no exception.
Aside from the championship clash in the main event, two more of the top heavyweights in the world will lock horns when former champion Fabricio Werdum faces Travis Browne in the night’s co-main event. The Brazilian Werdum, who already owns a victory over Browne from 2014, was rematched with the 6-7 Hawaiian after an injury forced his original opponent, Ben Rothwell, off the card early last month.
In their first encounter, it was the highly decorated jiu-jitsu grappler Werdum who won the striking battle, outlanding Browne 121-60 in significant strikes en route to a five-round unanimous decision victory. This time around, they’ll dance with a three-round limit.
Then there’s the water cooler fight. Former WWE superstar CM Punk will make his long-awaited MMA debut tonight, facing little known welterweight prospect Mickey Gall. Punk, whose real name is Phil Brooks, first made the announcement of his crossover from professional wrestling to real fighting in December of 2014 but several training camp injuries had delayed the soon-to-be 38-year old’s first fight until now.
While Punk will try to emulate the meteoric rise and success of fellow professional wrestler-turned-MMA fighter Brock Lesnar, he will have to do so without the same collegiate wrestling pedigree that Lesnar possessed. In fact, CM Punk enters this fight without any notable experience in the traditional MMA backgrounds of wrestling, boxing, kickboxing, judo, karate or jiu-jitsu.
Punk’s opponent, the 24-year old Gall, was discovered personally by UFC President Dana White while the promoter was out scouting fighters to pair up with Punk. The young submission ace enters tonight 2-0 in MMA, aiming to catch a dangling limb and make a name for himself off a tapout of the aging pro wrestler.
Also throwing down in Cleveland, fan favorite Urijah Faber seeks the 34th professional victory of his career as he squares off against surging bantamweight Jimmie Rivera. Faber, who goes by “The California Kid,” has been fighting professionally since 2003 and while his days left in the sport are surely numbered, he’ll try to turn back time in an attempt to halt Rivera’s 18-fight win streak.
Plus, Cleveland native Jessica “Evil” Eye looks to defend her home turf against Brazilian Bethe Correia in a featured women’s bantamweight preliminary bout.
How to watch
Tonight’s fight festivities kick off with the UFC 203 Fan Village from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m., located at the Gateway Plaza of Quicken Loans Arena. The Fan Village is free to the public and features appearances by UFC fighters Matt Brown, Donald Cerrone, Cody Garbrandt, Forrest Griffin and Anthony Pettis.
The UFC 203 fight card itself is sold out, with doors opening to the public at 5:15 p.m., but there are other ways to catch the action. The first two bouts get under way on the organization’s paid streaming service, UFC Fight Pass, beginning at 7 p.m. Then you can watch the next four prelim fights, including Eye vs Correia, on Fox Sports 1 starting at 8 p.m. Prelim coverage leads right into the main card on pay-per-view at 10 p.m. and is available through your cable provider.
Locally, Primanti Bros in Boardman and JR’z Pub in Austintown have each confirmed they will be showing the pay-per-view. Plus, you can follow along with the Vindicator’s live Twitter coverage from the event by following us @VindySports.