Stipe Miocic Knocks Out Junior Dos Santos In The First Round To Retain The Heavyweight Title At UFC 211

It was a battle of the heavyweights at UFC 211 in Dallas, Texas and champion Stipe Miocic and Junior dos Santos stepped into the Octagon to determine who the baddest man on the planet is. Dos Santos and Miocic met once before in 2014, with dos Santos taking the win over Miocic in a three round war. Would history repeat itself or would Miocic prove he’s grown as a champion in the years since their last encounter?

The thing about the heavyweight division is it only takes one punch to finish a fight, and that’s how it went down this time: Stipe Miocic caught dos Santos with his lunchbox sized fists and dropped him 2:23 in the first, earning the stoppage and defending the heavyweight belt for the second time.

Miocic spent the majority of the fight stalking dos Santos and pushing him against the cage, stepping in and landing again and again. Dos Santos was never able to counter that pressure and get an offense going, although he did land some nasty looking kicks to the shin that left Miocic’s leg looking like a bruised mess following the fight.

The win ties him for most heavyweight title defenses with three other legends: Randy Couture, Brock Lesnar, and Tim Sylvia. Interestingly enough, no heavyweight has ever defended the belt three times, something Stipe is now on the verge of changing. With the ease that he’s taken out his last couple of opponents, he could definitely do it, and then it’d be hard not to give him credit as one of the best heavyweights in UFC history.