Stipe Miocic defeated Junior dos Santos with a first-round TKO at 2:22 on Saturday night at UFC 211 in Dallas to retain his UFC heavyweight title.
Miocic (17-2, 11-2 in UFC) became the sixth UFC heavyweight to make consecutive successful title defenses, joining Randy Couture and Brock Lesnar, among others. No heavyweight has made three successful defenses.
Miocic has 13 career wins by knockout (eight in UFC). He outlanded dos Santos 26-12 in significant strikes, with 23 of those strikes landing to the head of dos Santos, according to FightMetric.
The knockout was Miocic’s fifth in a row since his loss to dos Santos in December 2014.
Dos Santos (18-5, 12-4 UFC) was seeking to become the fourth fighter to hold the UFC heavyweight title on two occasions. Only Couture, with three UFC heavyweight title reigns, has held the title on more than two occasions.
Miocic closed as a minus-135 favorite (a $135 bet would have netted $100), according to the Westgate Las Vegas SuperBook. Dos Santos was a plus-115 underdog ($100 bet would have netted $115).
Jedrzejczyk remains unbeaten
In the co-main event, UFC strawweight (115 pounds) champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk defeated Jessica Andrade by unanimous decision. Jedrzejczyk (14-0, including 8-0 UFC) won by scores of 50-45 on two cards and 50-44 on the other.
Saturday’s fight was Jedrzejczyk’s fifth title defense. She has six wins in UFC title fights, tied with Ronda Rousey for the most UFC title fight wins by a female fighter.
Jedrzejczyk outlanded Andrade 182-57 in significant strikes, continuing a trend. She has outlanded opponents 928-302 in significant strikes in her six UFC title fights, according to FightMetric.
Jedrzejczyk is the No. 1-ranked strawweight fighter and the No. 2-ranked women’s pound-for-pound fighter in ESPN’s rankings. Her past four wins have been by unanimous decision.
The loss ended a three-fight win streak for Andrade (16-6, including 7-4 UFC). She is ESPN’s No. 4-ranked strawweight fighter and No. 7-ranked women’s pound-for-pound fighter.
Jedrzejczyk, who won her title in 2015, is the second-longest reigning champion among active UFC titleholders, behind Demetrious Johnson.
The Westgate Las Vegas SportsBook closing odds had Jedrzejczyk as a minus-180 favorite and Andrade as a plus-160 underdog.