CLEVELAND – Stipe Miocic will have the state of Ohio on his side on Saturday night when he makes his first heavyweight title defense at UFC 203. The Cleveland native has been celebrated ever since he went into Curitiba, Brazil back in May and knocked out Fabricio Werdum. It was Miocic who first ended the city of Cleveland’s 58-year championship drought. The NBA’s Cleveland Cavaliers followed suit a month later by upsetting the Golden State Warriors.
Yet it was during that celebration of the Cavaliers that Miocic’s opponent on Saturday night, Alistair Overeem, first noticed that the current heavyweight champion was maybe a little too caught up in the festivities. Overeem has gone on record saying that he thinks Miocic’s focus is lacking heading into their main event fight at the Quicken Loans Arena, and he reiterated that on Wednesday at a media scrum after the open workouts.
"I stand by those comments," Overeem said, while a Cleveland fan heckled him. "You keep track of things, and it’s not a difficult thing to keep track of things. You see things on social media, pictures. For example, I went to UFC 200, great event, Vegas. I didn’t go to any pool parties. I was training everyday.
"Stipe was going to different parties. You could see that. You could see that on his clothes, he was wearing different clothes. He’s at different party events, he’s acting crazy, having a drink in his hand. He has been celebrating his victory. And you know what? Who can blame him? He became the champion in record time. But while he was celebrating, I was working. I was training hard. And my life has been dedicated for the last two-and-a-half years. The last six months I have definitely put on a couple of notches more. We’re ready, we’re going to get that belt."
The 36-year-old Overeem is coming into hostile territory to try and make history by becoming the first fighter to become a champion in the UFC, Strikeforce, K-1 and DREAM. If the current trend at heavyweight holds up, he might do just that. Not only did Miocic beat Werdum in his native Brazil, but Werdum took the belt from Cain Velasquez in Mexico City, at an event built around his Mexican heritage.
Overeem said he hopes to silence the partisans, just as Werdum and Miocic did in their title winning bouts.
"The people here are lovely," he said. "They’ve shown a tremendous amount of respect and I expect that to happen on Saturday. Of course, Stipe’s going to be the hometown hero, everybody will be rooting for him. Well, not everybody, but 99.8 percent. But you know, everybody’s entitled to their own opinion.
"I’m entitled to my opinion. We’re here for one goal, and one goal only. We’re going to cement my legacy. We’re going to get that championship belt, it will be history and the after party for some people will not be as nice."
When asked about his chance to make history, Overeem said that there was a shine to the fight, having gone through everything he has to arrive at this moment.
"It definitely does feel special," he said. "There’s definitely a little extra nerves. You know, sometimes you don’t have nerves. Sometimes you have a little bit of nerves. This is a little bit of nerves, but again, we’ve there. This is going to be my 87th fight. We’ve been here, we’ve done that. I use that tension, I use those nerves to my advantage. We’ll come out on top on Saturday."
Overeem has won four fights in a row, including TKOs over Junior dos Santos and Andrei Arlovski in his last two fights. Since losing back-to-back fights against Antonio Silva and Travis Browne, Overeem says he has been a focused fighter. He’s no longer the nomadic heavyweight that breeze through Thailand and the Blackzilians in Florida.
He summed it up in words at the scrum on Wednesday.
"I am the most hungry fighter in the heavyweight division," he said.
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