With his win over an extremely dangerous Francis Ngannou Stipe Miocic has certainly made a mark on the heavyweight division of the UFC and managed to get himself into the record books. It is somewhat surprising that at this point in the UFC's lifespan nobody had managed more than 2 title defenses in the heavyweight division. With there being 260 pound monsters who hit as hard as Ngannou though, perhaps it is not so surprising.
Certainly we all should have been able to foresee the outcome of this contest despite the obvious marketing machine the UFC was putting behind Ngannou. Brock Lesnar vs Shane Carwin comes to mind. Cardio will always triumph over punching power if those punches don't land or if the person manages to survive. It took less than 2 minutes before Ngannou began to slow down and Miocic began to pick up the pace and despite a nice shiner under the eye Stipe was none the worse for wear post fight.
Does this victory cement Stipe's legacy though as the greatest heavyweight of all time? There are a few others that could be considered to be the greatest. Cain Velasquez, Fabricio Werdum, and naturally The Last Emperor Fedor Emelianenko.
While Cain does have an impressive resume he has always been limited by the number of injuries he has had. Because of this he has only ever managed to fight a few of the greats. A couple of solid wins over Junior Dos Santos, victory over a returning from diverticulitis Brock Lesnar, and non-juiced Bigfoot Silva isn't enough to convince me that he is the greatest.
Werdum has a bit of a spotty resume having lost having lost 7 times over the course of his long career including a crushing knock out to Stipe. However he does have victories over Cain in decisive fashion and the submission that ended the Fedor winning streak.
Fedor of course holds the longest winning streak at heavyweight that likely won't ever be beaten. By my count he had 27 victories in a row. While certainly some of the fights were against tomato cans many of them were against legitimate fighters such as Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira in his prime, Mirko Cro Cop, and Andrei Arlovski. The simple truth is that at that weight nearly anybody can be a dangerous threat and this man dispatched them all.
Looking at Stipe's resume when compared to the others he actually does have a legitimate argument that he is the best. He has an 18-2 record with wins over Junior Dos Santos, Werdum, Overeem, and Mark Hunt. For him to cement himself in this discussion though what he really needs is a victory over Cain Velasquez. Here is hoping that Cain can get healthy and that battle can actually happen.
The Dedguy