With his unanimous decision victory over the uber-hyped Francis Ngannou in UFC 220’s main event, Stipe Miocic set the record for most consecutive title defenses by a UFC Heavyweight. No heavyweight had ever defended the belt three times successfully, making it the most difficult title to defend of all time.
Miocic afterwards claimed he’s the greatest heavyweight in UFC history, saying:
“No one’s ever defended it three times. I’ve done it and I had a killers row of fighters to get to it. I had a hard path to get to the title, and I’ve had a hard path to defend the title. I had top dudes. I had to fight (Andrei) Arlovski, then I had to fight (Fabricio) Werdum in Brazil in front of 45,000 people. Crazy. Next guy, (Alistair) Overeem, killer, K-1 champ, hits like a ton of bricks. Next guy, ‘JDS’ (Junior dos Santos), who I lost to. Now I got a guy who’s a phenom. Nothing’s ever easy. I know fighting ain’t easy, but I never had an easy road. Everything was hard.”
UFC 220 Highlights:
Stipe Miocic vs Francis Ngannou
Daniel Cormier vs Volkan Oezdemir
Razak Alhassan vs Sabah Homasi
