Miocic defends UFC title in wild fight

By JOHN CHECHITELLI

sports@vindy.com

CLEVELAND

“And still...”

The words every UFC champion wants to hear announcer Bruce Buffer say after their championship fight ends. On Saturday night at Cleveland’s sold-out Quicken Loans Arena, that’s exactly what hometown hero Stipe Miocic heard, followed by the rest of Buffer’s sentence, “the UFC heavyweight champion of the world!”

The part-time firefighter/paramedic just fought the fight of his life against dangerous Dutch striker Alistair Overeem. And what a fight it was. From the beginning, Miocic stalked him down, took some thunderous shots and then got dropped by a heavy punch.

Overeem, sensing the end was near, pounced on Miocic and tried locking him in a guillotine choke. Somehow, Miocic survived as the crowd collectively gasped for air. When the action resumed on their feet, fans were screaming, “Hands up, Stipe, hands up!”

While he never really heeded that advice, Miocic kept coming forward. He started tagging Overeem, sending the challenger on the run. Finally, after the four-minute mark of the first round, Miocic remembered he was a former wrestler at Cleveland State and he took the Dutchman down. It was there that he unleashed a vicious barrage of ground-and-pound, separating Overeem from his senses to win by knockout.

With the win, Miocic picked up the 13th knockout of his MMA career as well as the first successful defense of the heavyweight title he won in May of this year. And because he’s Ohio through and through, he grabbed the microphone out of post-fight interviewer Joe Rogan’s hands to lead a chant for the crowd, “O-H, I-O ... O-H, I-O!”

Miocic wasn’t the only local star on display. Jessica Eye, another Cleveland product, went toe-to-toe with former women’s bantmaweight title challenger Bethe Correia. Eye, who goes by the moniker “Evil Eye,” threw everything but the kitchen sink at her opponent and had the fans enthralled throughout all three rounds. In the end though, it was Correia who got the split decision nod and a chorus of boos from the crowd that was so loud it completely drowned out the Brazilian’s post-fight interview.

If you bill it, they will come

Judging by the average age of the sold-out crowd in attendance, it’s not a stretch to assume that most had never seen a fight of this magnitude in person before, at least not in Cleveland. After all, not since the late, great Muhammad Ali battered poor Chuck Wepner to a pulp at the Richfield Coliseum in 1975 had the area played host to a prizefight with any real significance. Fast forward 41 years and fight hungry fans from all over flooded in.

Of course there were plenty of locals, like 28-year-old Clevelander Mike Black. Decked out in the official Stipe Miocic Reebok “fight kit,” Black said he first heard about the fight when Miocic announced it on the Jumbotron during the NBA Eastern Conference Finals. Black said he lost his “stuff,” at the news of the fight announcement. “As soon as I knew it was happening, I had to come. It’s a once in a lifetime event,” he explained with a giddy smile.

But not everyone who showed up for the fights was a happy-go-lucky Cleveland fan. Take Pittsburgh’s Tony Idaluca, for example. He and two buddies came into enemy territory to proudly root against Stipe Miocic. Hopefully they weren’t heckled too bad when Overeem had to be woken up off the canvas.

Then there was Ray Young and his crew from Buffalo, Brazil’s Rodrigo Ricardo (and the 14 Brazilians he brought with him) and Steve Simic’s group of Croatians-turned-Canadians, who drove down from Windsor just to bask in the glory of another guy whose name “ends with a C.”

A taste of everything

No matter where they came from though, they all got their money’s worth. Haymakers, suplexes, flying knees, oh my!

Looping left and right hooks spelled a fast knockout win for Drew Dober. Unheralded Jimmie Rivera upset fan favorite Urijah Faber by decision. Fabricio Werdum won a decision over Travis Browne before he was attacked by Browne’s head coach after the fight.

And former WWE star CM Punk was force-fed a harsh dose of reality when he was absolutely embarrassed in his MMA debut by Mickey Gall, tapping out to a first-round choke without ever landing a punch.

All in all, it was yet another night to remember in a year that no one in Cleveland will ever forget.