5 Things You Might Not Know About Stipe Miocic

A precipitous rise to the top of the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s most volatile weight class has made Stipe Miocic a household name in mixed martial arts circles.

Miocic will put the undisputed heavyweight crown on the line in a rematch with Junior dos Santos in the UFC 211 main event on May 13 at the American Airlines Center in Dallas. There, the 34-year-old Euclid, Ohio, native can avenge his December 2014 loss to dos Santos and join Randy Couture, Tim Sylvia and Cain Velasquez as the only men to make two straight successful heavyweight title defenses. Miocic will carry a four-fight winning streak into the cage, the Strong Style Fight Team cornerstone having captured the championship on May 14, when he knocked out two-time Abu Dhabi Combat Club Submission Wrestling World Championships gold medalist Fabricio Werdum in front of more than 45,000 of his countrymen in Curitiba, Brazil. He then cemented his place as the sport’s top heavyweight four months later by wiping out former Dream and Strikeforce champion Alistair Overeem with first-round punches in the UFC 203 headliner. That Miocic vanquished Overeem in front of a hometown crowd at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland -- he was born roughly 10 miles from the venue -- made it even sweeter (online betting).

As Miocic approaches his second high-stakes encounter with the resurgent dos Santos, here are five things you might not know about him:

1. He is a well-rounded athlete.

Miocic was a three-sport standout at North High School in Eastlake, Ohio, and went on to play baseball and wrestle at Cleveland State University, a Division I institution in Cleveland. He later won a Golden Gloves championship as a boxer.

2. He does not waste time in the cage.

Quick finishes are a Miocic specialty, as he has beaten four different opponents in less than a minute. He stopped Corey Mullis with punches in 17 seconds in his MMA debut in 2010, took care of Philip De Fries in 43 seconds at UFC on Fuel TV 1 in 2012, disposed of Fabio Maldonado in 35 seconds at “The Ultimate Fighter Brazil 3” Finale in 2014 and cut down Andrei Arlovski in 54 seconds at UFC 195 in 2016. Miocic has finished four other fights inside the first round.

3. Stuffing the stat sheet has become a hallmark.

Miocic per FightMetric has landed the third-most significant strikes (600) in the history of the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s heavyweight division, trailing only dos Santos (887) and Cain Velasquez (718). He ranks ahead of Sylvia (585), Werdum (581), Cheick Kongo (574), Arlovski (470), Roy Nelson (439), Stefan Struve (413) and Couture (392).

4. The UFC likes Miocic’s work.

In his 12 appearances inside the Octagon, he has been awarded seven post-fight performance bonuses totaling $340,000.

5. He is a prolific striker, on the feet and on the ground.

Miocic holds the UFC’s single-fight record for most strikes landed. He connected with 361 of them against 2001 K-1 World Grand Prix winner Mark Hunt in their UFC Fight Night 65 main event on May 10, 2015 in Adelaide, Australia. Miocic outlanded Hunt 70-0 in the fifth round, stopping him 2:47 into the final frame in what was later recognized as the Sherdog.com “Beatdown of the Year.”