Miocic takes belt back from Cormier
He gets fourth-round KO in heavyweight title fight rematch. Diaz also a winner in his return at UFC 241.
Stipe Miocic regained the heavyweight belt with a fourth-round knockout of Daniel Cormier on Saturday night in their UFC 241 mainevent rematch at Honda Center in Anaheim.
Miocic avenged last year’s loss to Cormier in a first-round knockout and took back the belt he held from May 2016 to July 2018, during which he set a UFC record with three successful defenses of the belt in a row.
A boisterous Nate Diaz brazenly lit a blunt as he hyped his return to the UFC this week. The notoriously crusty Diaz spent the last three years away from mixed martial arts stuck in consternation, smoking copious amounts of cannabis and constantly clashing with UFC boss Dana White.
The 34-year-old Stockton native returned to the cage Saturday for the first time since concluding a thrilling doubleheader against Conor McGregor in 2016, and promptly lit up Anthony Pettis in a crowd-pleasing co-main event. Diaz scored a unanimous decision victory, with scores of 30-27, 30-27 and 29-28 on the judges’ scorecards.
Diaz (21-11) dominated much of the fight, but Pettis (22-9) had flashes of brilliance too.
Diaz slipped past a strong choke hold midway in the first round and then mounted Pettis to pound him with clubbing fists. Diaz then took Pettis’ back and tried to pull off a pair of chokes while punching him in between. Pettis, a former UFC lightweight champion, pulled himself out of deep water to survive the round.
The two came flying at each other at the beginning of round two, but the pace simmered in the first minute as they both tried to find their ground.
During the final two minutes, however, it picked up intensely, as they threw shots at each other that landed from several angles and levels, turning it into a phone-booth fight. Diaz was cut across his right eyebrow, but got the better of the round, highlighted by a powerful knee to the face.
Diaz dominated the third round from stern-to-stem much to the delight of the Southern California crowd that came to witness his return. Referee Mike Beltran briefly took a close look at stopping the fight at the two-minute mark as Diaz was having his way with every hand he let go, including his trademark Stockton Slap.
Pettis survived that sequence too, and pocketed the moral victory of not being knocked out.
Diaz now officially re-enters the packed welterweight picture. After the fight, he immediately called out contender Jorge Masvidal, who was in attendance watching the fight.
In a brutal, beastly battle between two top middleweights with championship aspirations, Paulo Costa catapulted himself to a favorable position for a title shot by punching past Yoel Romero in a unanimous decision victory.
Costa (13-0) was bloodied but not beaten in the backand-forth faceoff with Romero (13-4), as all three judges scored the bout 29-28. It was an entertaining, 15-minute affair featuring a fair share of flying fists from both sides, and it surely will be considered as a fight of the year candidate once the calendar year comes to a close.
“Romero is a beast, the toughest guy in the division, after me now,” Costa said afterward. “I trained for every part of the fight: ground, cage, stand up, clinch and I showed everyone that I can beat anyone. Romero is a beast, a true martial artist, very tough. I almost knocked him out in the first round, but he’s got a very strong chin.”
Sodiq Yusuff (10-1) cut Gabriel Benitez (21-8) over the left eye and then shook him with a spectacular right hand shortly after, finishing the fight with hammer fists on the mat to score a firstround technical knockout.