Both Stipe Miocic and Junior dos Santos predicted they wouldn’t make it past the third round at UFC 211 this past weekend – they were right.
In the opening round of the evening’s main event, Miocic absorbed some heavy leg kicks that echoed a boom throughout the arena. Despite the heavy low kicks, Cleveland’s finest was able to press the action forward and land a crips right hand that left “Cigano” slumped over against the cage on the canvas.
The win marked Miocic’s second successful consecutive title defense, just one away from the most title defenses in UFC heavyweight title history. As for why he didn’t throw any follow-up strikes after dropping the Brazilian, Miocic explained he didn’t want to inflict any unnecessary damage on his counterpart (quotes via MMA Junkie):
“I didn’t want him – I caught him with a good right,” Miocic said. “He fell. He wasn’t moving, so that’s why I looked at the ref.
“But, you know, JDS is super tough. Look what he did last time. We went 25 (minutes), and it was just hell. I knew what the ref was doing. But (Dos Santos) wasn’t moving. I didn’t want to inflict any more pain if I didn’t have to. But it’s a fight. He would’ve been doing the same thing to me.”
The pair of world class heavyweights initially met back in 2014 where they put on a tremendous 25 minute war that “JDS” ultimately won via unanimous decision. Miocic says he tried not to think about that bout in the lead-up to his second go around with dos Santos, but is grateful for the experience as it made him into the champion he is today:
“I try not to think about it, because it was a terrible night,” Miocic said. “My eyes were swollen shut. I had 16 stitches in my lip.
” … But yeah, I thought about it all the time. But I also want to thank him because if it wasn’t for him, I wouldn’t be here right now. He gave me that confidence I needed – that confidence I could beat anyone in the world. The confidence I can be the champ, I can be the champ for a long time. And like I said, if it wasn’t for my coaches over there, I wouldn’t be here right now.”
As for those kicks he suffered early in the first round, Miocic admits that they definitely hurt a tremendous amount and did some damage:
“The kicks definitely hurt,” he said. “It wasn’t fun. It was (expletive), but I was good.
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