Ever since the early days of the UFC, the heavyweight belt is something that no fighter has been able to successfully defend over two times. Starting with Ken Shamrock in 1995 and now running all the way down to when Miocic won the belt after beating Fabricio Werdum in front of 45,000 cheering fans, not a single fighter has been able to hang on to the title by defending it successfully in a title match more than twice.
Now, all eyes are on Miocic as he looks to become the first fighter who can break the curse of the heavyweight title and hold on to it after the third title defense fight which is now just around the corner. Miocic obviously is very well aware that the statistics are strongly against his favor, and it will be playing on the back of his mind no matter how much he denies being bothered by it.
Big names such as Randy Couture, Tim Sylvia, Brock Lesnar, Velasquez and Werdum have tried and fallen attempting to defend the heavyweight title for a third time in a row.
Werdum, the most recent one to have failed at this task seemed the most promising of the lot. He was confident and had won eight of his previous nine fights. However, it was not long after the fight started that he charged wildly at Miocic and was knocked out by short right hand from Miocic, who to his credit, remained composed and vigilant throughout the brief duration of the fight unlike Werdum.
If the trend in the history book continue, we will see Miocic beaten his opponent and the talk will then be all about whether the new champion will be the one to break the deadlock or curse of the heavyweight title. However, Miocic has already surprised us and himself by becoming champion and who says he cannot surprise us once more?
We will have to wait and see who his opponent will be. It could be Alistair Overeem, Werdum, Velasquez or Dos Satos. Any which way, it is going to be a very interesting fight that will be difficult to call.
Author : Rory McGregor
