Miocic’s heavyweight reign may be a long one

With his second heavyweight title defense, Stipe Miocic has tied the longest reign at the top of the division, but looks like he can keep a hold at the top for a long time.

In a division with so much power, where it only takes one punch to knock somebody out, it makes sense that there has never been a long reign at the top. After knocking out Junior Dos Santos in the first round of their UFC 211 main event, Stipe Miocic joined Randy Couture, Tim Sylvia, Cain Velasquez, and Brock Lesnar as the only men who have successfully defended the UFC heavyweight championship twice in a row. Now the question is whether he can become the first to defend the title a third time.

Again, the power in the division makes it impossible to really predict anything like that when top fighters are facing top fighters, but after wins over Fabricio Werdum, Alistair Overeem. and now Dos Santos, Miocic really has a chance to not only defend his belt a third time but perhaps even longer.

There is only one championship-level opponent left for Miocic to face. After knocking out Mark Hunt and Andrei Arlovski to earn his title shot, Cain Velasquez is the top guy left. And the oft-injured American just does not fight very often and at times looks like he’s rusty when he comes back.

Miocic completely dominated Dos Santos, who was coming off perhaps the most dominant performance of his career in a victory over Ben Rothwell just over a year ago. Miocic endured a few hard leg kicks, but then blitzed the Brazilian and landed a perfect straight right to his temple and knocked him out in just 2:22, avenging the last loss in his career.

Velasquez absolutely out beat Miocic with a haymaker, but should Miocic win that fight, the UFC division is in a really tough position when it comes to finding contenders. If Derrick Lewis beats Mark Hunt in their upcoming summer clash, that could be an option, but if Hunt wins, then Lewis is out of being a contender. After that, it is a bunch of recycled guys.

The division will have to play out, but Miocic’s athleticism, power, and all-around complete skill set make him a guy who really looks like he can take over the division for the long term.

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Corey Johns

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You could say Corey was born to become a sports journalist. His father won a national championship coaching college soccer. His mother is a baseball fanatic who hasn't missed seeing an Orioles game since 1983 (literally, sometimes it's annoying). His great uncle was a big-time boxing promoter and his maternal grandfather was once a department head at the Baltimore Sun. Basically, sports and journalism run through his blood. He played just about every little league sports there was when he was a kid and was a multi-sport athlete in high school; even playing in the first-ever high school sanction Rugby game in the country. Eventually he retired from sports as an undefeated Maryland state Rugby champion as a high school senior. Perhaps lack of athletic talent has more to do with the retirement, but he will tell you that it more had to do with a great desire to jump right into media. Upon his graduation from University of Maryland, Baltimore County as a triple communications major, Corey started the So Much Sports network and has continued to grow his websites and continues to work to make them premier sports media outlets.

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