Stipe Miocic has retained his belt thanks to a knockout (figuratively and literally) performance in front of his hometown crowd.
In what was essentially a four-and-a-half-minute game of cat and mouse, Stipe spent the better part of five minutes chasing his opponent Alistair Overeem around the cage.
For a moment, it looked like Alistair could have taken home the gold, knocking Stipe on his butt with a hard left and pulling his downed opponent into a guillotine choke.
The champ, however, wrestled his way out. And though he looked a bit wobbly when he got back up to his feet, he eventually continued chasing Alistair, continuously battering him with ones and twos.
Towards the end of the round, Miocic caught Overeem and took him to the ground. There, he rained down huge, pinpoint accurate punches on the Dutchman, leaving him unconscious and forcing the referee to call a halt to the bout at 4:27 seconds of the very first round.
