Stipe Miocic and Alistair Overeem both made weight for Saturday’s heavyweight title tilt at UFC 203, although there was a fair bit of drama on the scales on Friday morning.
The Dutch star was late to the weigh-in because of being “a little bit slow” and was consequently fined $500 by the Ohio commission, per Tim Burke of Bloody Elbow.
Even so, the headline fight is still very much on, with Miocic weighing in at 246 pounds and his relaxed opponent hitting 249 pounds, as FOX Sports: UFC reported:
It’s all set to be an incredibly tight encounter at the Q, although home advantage could play a huge role in the fight.
Miocic is a proud Clevelander and will be backed heavily by the capacity crowd on Saturday night.
Either way, the man himself said all he cares about his getting into the ring and getting the job done, per Brent Brookhouse of MMAjunkie: “It doesn’t matter where I fight at. It could be Cleveland, it could be Brazil again. I’m here for business. When I walk to the Octagon, it’s all I’m going to think about, me and Alistair. It’s all I care about. Nobody else is going to get in the octagon with us. I’m going to win and that’s the way it’s going to be.”
Miocic is incredibly durable in the Octagon, and he’ll look to drag the fight out for as long as possible before getting Overeem on the canvas and putting the fight to bed.
The Dutchman, meanwhile, tends to bide his time and wait for a single chance to land a knockout blow, which should play into Miocic’s hands nicely.
If the American can control the pace of the fight and crank the speed up a few notches, then Overeem will struggle to keep up and could lose steam quickly.
However, the challenger is confident he can silence the Cleveland crowd, saying he’d be “sorry” to take the title away from Ohio, per Brookhouse: “People are very friendly and very open. I was here during the parade, it was madness. It was good to see a proud state finally accomplish [winning] championships. I almost feel a little bit sad I’m going to take something away from them. But I will be taking that something away this Saturday.”
Overeem is the better overall striker and will likely look to land some heavy blows early on to knock Miocic off his game, although that could prove to act against him in terms of fatigue.
It’ll undoubtedly be a closely fought contest in Cleveland, although Miocic may just have an edge. The UFC heavyweight title is proving rather hard for fighters to hang onto, but the American has more than enough about him to get acquainted with the belt.
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