UFC champ Stipe Miocic, baddest man on planet, didn't want to inflict unnecessary pain

With his record-tying second UFC heavyweight title defense in Saturday’s UFC 211 headliner, Stipe Miocic clearly can inflict damage. He just doesn’t want to do it unnecessarily.

In the featured pay-per-view attraction at American Airlines Center in Dallas, Miocic (17-2 MMA, 11-2 UFC) avenged a past loss and earned a crushing first-round TKO victory over ex-titleholder Junior Dos Santos (18-5 MMA, 12-4 UFC).

As the current heavyweight champion, Miocic carries the “baddest man on the planet” tag that’s usually reserved for the UFC’s biggest titleholder. But the fan favorite, who said he’s not too concerned with labels or even records, clearly has a soft side – even in a sport with plenty of violence.

That’s why he regretted the need to deliver unneeded damage on Dos Santos, who was ultimately stopped at the 2:22 mark of the opening round of their weekend bout. At on point during the fight-ending swarm of punches, Miocic looked to the ref.

“I didn’t want him – I caught him with a good right,” Miocic said. “He fell. He wasn’t moving, so that’s why I looked at the ref.

“But, you know, JDS is super tough. Look what he did last time. We went 25 (minutes), and it was just hell. I knew what the ref was doing. But (Dos Santos) wasn’t moving. I didn’t want to inflict any more pain if I didn’t have to. But it’s a fight. He would’ve been doing the same thing to me.”

And though he had no personal beef with Dos Santos – the fighters were quite chummy in the buildup to the fight – he did want to help erase the memory of his December 2014 “Fight of the Night” loss to Dos Santos.

“I try not to think about it, because it was a terrible night,” Miocic said. “My eyes were swollen shut. I had 16 stitches in my lip.

” … But yeah, I thought about it all the time. But I also want to thank him because if it wasn’t for him, I wouldn’t be here right now. He gave me that confidence I needed – that confidence I could beat anyone in the world. The confidence I can be the champ, I can be the champ for a long time. And like I said, if it wasn’t for my coaches over there, I wouldn’t be here right now.”

Miocic, the No. 1 fighter in the USA TODAY Sports/MMAjunkie MMA heavyweight rankings (and No. 6 pound-for-pound), rebounded in a big way following that 2014 defeat to Dos Santos. He’s now posted five straight knockout victories – the past four in the first round.

The 34-year-old Cleveland-area firefighter could break the UFC heavyweight title-defense record with a victory in his next bout. He’s not sure who his opponent will be, though he said he’ll be watching an upcoming UFC 213 bout between former champ Fabricio Werdum (21-6-1 MMA, 9-3 UFC) and Alistair Overeem (42-15 MMA, 7-4 UFC) closely.

However, with their series tied 1-1, Miocic wouldn’t be surprised to someday have a third meeting with Dos Santos. After all, even in Saturday’s victory, Miocic was in trouble when Dos Santos landed some early low kicks that did real damage.

“The kicks definitely hurt,” he said. “It wasn’t fun. It was (expletive), but I was good.

For more on UFC 211, check out the UFC Events section of the site.