Stipe Miocic just remembers one thing, and that's knocking out Alistair Overeem.
The UFC heavyweight champ, Miocic, successfully completed his first title defense on Saturday night at UFC 203. The Cleveland native knocked out top contender Overeem in the first round of a wild fight. Although it was pretty clear who won the fight, there was a bit of controversy after the fight, as Overeem accused Miocic of tapping out to one of his submissions.
"The Reem," who holds nine victories via guillotine choke, dropped the champ during their title bout, and immediately followed up with his vintage choke. The guillotine looked deep, but Miocic was able to escape and eventually get the knockout win. In the post-fight press conference, Miocic addressed Overeem's accusations, and the situation that occurred after the fight.
"I just remember signing my check and all that good stuff, and I heard boos," Miocic explained. "I asked what they (the crowd) were booing about because I knew he (Overeem) was talking, and they told me that he said that I tapped out. I don't remember tapping out, I just remember punching his face repeatedly until he was unconscious."
Soon after Overeem made the accusation in his post-fight speech with color commentator Joe Rogan, the UFC's production team replayed the choke sequence from different angles, and from what was shown it didn't look like Miocic tapped out.
"I don't know how I can tap out when I have two hands on his hands," Miocic said. "But yeah he's also not feeling too good right now. I mean, that's terrible. He could really hurt me. He threw harder than I thought, he kicked harder than I thought, and you know, that was my own fault, but I knew everything that was coming.
"Listen, I trained for these kind of situations. He put me on my ass, you know. I felt fine, and he got me on that front headlock (guillotine choke) and I just kept scooting my right knee. I popped out, he didn't like it, and then he gave me the opportunity to grab his leg, so I followed him and right when I got on top of him, game over."