Miocic defends UFC heavyweight title with 1st-round blitzing of Dos Santos

Stipe Miocic earned a seat at the table with the legends of the heavyweight division.

The proud Ohioan recorded his second consecutive defense of the heavyweight title by finishing Junior dos Santos at the 2:22 mark of the first round in the main event of UFC 211 in Dallas on Saturday.

Miocic joins Randy Couture, Brock Lesnar, Tim Sylvia, and Cain Velasquez as the only heavyweights in UFC history to record two straight successful championship defenses.

That wasn't the only record Miocic set. With his fifth consecutive knockout, Miocic now owns the longest KO streak among active UFC fighters (per MMAjunkie's Mike Bohn), breaking a tie with Mairbek Taisumov and Gegard Mousasi.

This was also Miocic's fifth straight win overall, placing him in a tie with Francis Ngannou for the second-longest streak in the heavyweight division behind Derrick Lewis (6).

Miocic was the aggressor from the outset, stalking Dos Santos until the former champion's back was against the cage. With nowhere to go, Dos Santos absorbed several punches and he was never able to really get out of the gates.

The end came when Miocic cut Dos Santos off again and cracked him with a pair of rights over the top of the Brazilian's defenses. From there, Miocic dove down to pound Dos Santos out:

For Dos Santos, this was a devastating reversal of fortunes from his first meeting with Miocic in December 2014. At the time, Dos Santos was the more established fighter who outslugged Miocic to win a unanimous decision. Two years later, he looked completely outclassed.

"Cigano" has now alternated wins and losses in his past eight fights and he sees his UFC record fall to 12-4.