“Cleveland, we’ve got a champion, baby!”
That is how Cleveland’s own Stipe Miocic ended his post-fight press conference after winning the Ultimate Fighting Championship heavyweight title with a first-round knockout of former champion, Fabricio Werdum, in the main event of UFC 198 at the Arena Atletico Paranaense in Curitiba, Brazil, Saturday night.
“I didn’t believe I carried the weight,” Miocic said of Cleveland’s much-documented championship drought. “I was going to go out there to do my best job. Fabricio’s a super-tough guy. He’s the champion for a reason.
“Tonight, on ESPN, they had ‘Believeland.’ It was a documentary about how Cleveland sports don’t win championships. I knew I had to put an end to it. I had to stop the curse for us, and it went well for me tonight.”
Miocic won the UFC Championship after delivering a right hand to the jaw of Werdum. The former champion was chasing Miocic around the outer rim of The Octagon, and left his chin exposed. Despite backing away from Werdum’s pursuit, Miocic threw a powerful right hand that floored the champion.
Miocic added three shots to the downed Werdum before referee Dan Miragliotta jumped in-between the fighters to end the fight at 2:14 of the first round.
According to the UFC, Miocic landed 20 of his 31 total strikes (65 percent), and all of those were considered significant blows, compared to the 15-for-33 (45 percent) showing that Werdum had against the challenger.
Miocic landed 68 percent of his strikes to Werdum’s head and another 29 percent to the former champion’s legs, including 88 percent from distance and three percent in the clinch. Werdum landed all of his punches from distance.
“It ends tonight, but I don’t think he’s better than I am overall,” Werdum said through a translator in the post-fight press conference. “I think I’m a complete fighter, and I showed that in the fight. I was very conscious, but the right word is reckless. I was a little bit reckless.
“I had my vision too open. I needed to focus a little more on him. Sometimes, that happens. Vision opens and closes, and in that moment, he hit me and I didn’t see it. It landed on the chin. It really landed on the chin, but I think the most fair thing would be…I have six consecutive wins, I was the champion. I think the fair thing would be to get a rematch.”
Following the knockout of Werdum, Miocic sprinted to his corner, jumped over the cage fence and celebrated the victory with his coaches. While getting hugged by his team and them saying, “We won it, baby,” Miocic screamed: “I’m the world champ! I’m the world champ!”
“I want to keep this belt for a long time,” Miocic said. “I know Cleveland’s got the curse, but I’m bringing the championship back home to Cleveland. I’m going to keep this belt for a while. I promise you that.”
