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Miocic gets his revenge and is the new heavyweight champion

ufc18 August 2019 07:44| © Backpage TXT
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Stipe Miocic © Gallo Images

Stipe Miocic reclaimed the UFC heavyweight title with a fourth-round knockout of Daniel Cormier at UFC 241 at the Honda Centre in Anaheim, California, United States in the early hours of Sunday morning.

While many had written Miocic off, the Ohio-born heavyweight had other ideas but it certainly wasn’t easy for him to reclaim his title against Cormier who took it from him in the first place.

In fact, it was an outright war which actually saw Cormier dominating the fight with his dirty boxing and superior wrestling skills, underling just why he is regarded as one of the best UFC fighters of all-time.

However, Cormier’s supremacy ended in the fourth round when a beaten and bruised Miocic changed tactics and opted to throw some massive left-hooks to the body of his opponent.

The 36-year-old kept plugging away at the body of Cormier, ‘chopping down the tree’, before seizing an opening when the champion dropped his hands and Miocic pounced as the ‘Cleveland Clubber’ landed some massive right hands which dropped Cormier and he quickly finished him off with some ground and pound.

Speaking after the fight, Miocic admitted he was tired and was full of praise for Cormier.

“DC’s a tough m***********, I’m gonna give it to him,” said Miocic.

“I caught him with a right hand, thank God because he’s tough, it’s a fight and anything can happen.

“I thought it was hurting him, my coach said use that right hand.”

The loss for Cormier is his first at heavyweight and he commended Miocic for his change of tactics in the fourth-round while suggesting his retirement may be immanent.

“I think he made a great adjustment like you said with the body shots. He’s a fantastic champion and congratulations to Stipe and his team,” said Cormier.

“You don’t make decisions based on emotions. But it’s a tough pill to swallow and at 40-years-old you know, with so many other opportunities, I need to speak to my wife and we need to make an educated decision about what we do.”

In the co-main event, despite a three-year absence from the UFC octagon, Nate Diaz showed no sign of rust with a unanimous decision win over Anthony Pettis in a welterweight contest.

Diaz simple showed his heart and out-worked his opponent with some slick boxing skills and his always impressive jujutsu. Diaz absorbed a lot of heavy punches but, as is his style, he kept pushing forward and used his size and reach advantage to control the clinch.

Following the fight, Diaz said he was happy to be back in the winner’s circle and called out Jorge Masvidal for his next fight.

“It’s the Nate Diaz army, m************,” said Diaz.

“It’s good to be back. The reason I was off was because everybody sucked, there were no good fights.

“Jorge Masvidal had a good last fight, all respect to the man, there ain’t no gangsters in this game but me and him. I know my man’s a gangster but he ain’t no West Coast gangster, you know what I’m saying?”

The fight of the night had to be Paulo Costa’s unanimous decision win over Yole Romero in their middleweight clash.

Many thought that the fight wouldn’t go past the first round with the power possessed by both fighters, but that was not the case although it was not from trying.

It was an absolutely brutal fight with both middleweights throwing absolute bombs that saw both rocked, but neither gave up and kept on slugging.

In the end, Costa took a close, and somewhat controversial, decision in a fight that will be considered one of the fights of the Year.

It was also a good night for Gabriel Benitez who earned a first round KO win over Sodiq Yusuff in their featherweight clash while Derek Brunson defeated Ian Heinisch via unanimous decision in a middleweight bout.

UFC 241 MAIN CARD RESULTS:

- Stipe Miocic (c) def. Daniel Cormier via fourth-round TKO (punches)

- Nate Diaz def. Anthony Pettis via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)

- Paulo Costa def. Yoel Romero via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)

- Sodiq Yusuff def. Gabriel Benitez via first-round TKO (punches)

- Derek Brunson def. Ian Heinisch via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)

- Khama Worthy def. Devonte Smith via first-round TKO (punches)

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