The main event of UFC 211 certainly lived up to its lofty expectations as Stipe Miocic picked up a first-round TKO victory over Brazil’s Junior dos Santos.It was a completely different affair from their first meeting back in 2014, where Miocic lost via unanimous decision and has since stopped his next five opponents while avenging his second professional loss in the process.

FIRST-ROUND TKO

Despite the slightly tentative start to the fight from both men, dos Santos’ early leg kicks looked to have troubled the champion after failing to find a home for his left hand.

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Miocic found his groove when coming forward and landed a right hand before successfully following it up with a knee as the challenger continued to circle away and connect with the low kicks; but again, the pressure from the Cleveland native visibly troubled dos Santos.

Coming forward, Miocic landed a big left hand as he pressed the action and followed it up with another hard right before applying more pressure.

As you’ll be able to see in the clip below, another hard right from Miocic saw dos Santos drop to the canvas as the champion jumped on him and rained down with punches – before referee Herb Dean jumped in after witnessing Miocic pummelling dos Santos with some big shots from the top to call it off at two minutes and 22 seconds of the very first round.

REVENGE

After avenging his loss to dos Santos, Miocic now finds himself in brilliant company as he becomes just the fourth fighter in UFC history to successfully defend the 265-pound championship title twice in its 20-year history, joining Tim Sylvia, Randy Couture, Brock Lesnar and Cain Velasquez.

Judging by how his performances are going, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see him make it three title defences with no stand-out heavyweight candidate to challenge him next.

Dos Santos, however, has now lost two of his last three fights by picking up his fifth professional loss, making it 4-4 in his last eight fights inside of the Octagon.

The limping Miocic may have won the contest in emphatic fashion, but admitted dos Santos’ leg kicks throughout the first round did trouble him.

Speaking after the fight, he said: “It was terrible. It hurt.”

Now that he has two title defences under his belt, including a win over Cigano, he’s confident that he’s the baddest man on the planet.

He added: “I’m the best. I’m the best in the world!”

It was the perfect night for Miocic. He won, retained his title, avenged a loss and also picked up a nice $50,000 performance of the night bonus.

What did you make of Stipe Miocic’s TKO victory over Junior dos Santos? Have YOUR say in the comments section below.

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