Heavyweight Joey Beltran welcomed Stipe Miocic to the UFC at UFC 136 in Houston's Toyota Central. The fight was streamed live on Facebook.
UFC 136 Results: Stipe Miocic defeats Joey Beltran by unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28x2).
In the opening round, Miocic, a nationally ranked collegiate wrestler, quickly took Beltran down. Beltran worked his way back to his feet quickly. Miocic used his reach advantage to pepper Beltran with jabs and hard leg kicks. Beltran seemed hurt and hesitant after only a few shots.
Beltran pressed forward to open the second but Miocic used a silky smooth single leg to take him down quickly. Miocic then added some ground and pound from the top. Beltran floundered his way into the wrong end of side control only to quickly stand up. Then Beltran got a take down and started landing some hard punches to Miocic's face. Miocic stayed calm and fought back to his feet. Beltran landed a hard shot on the break. Miocic took him down with another make-it-look-easy single leg. Beltran exploded back to his feet and the brawl he wanted. Beltran landed some shots and then forced a clinch against the cage. Beltran did well in the concluding exchanges of the round.
They clinched up quickly in the third and Miocic got him down. From there he mounted Beltran and then took his back before Beltran stood. Miocic held on to the body lock as long as he could. Beltran landed a standing hammerfist then a nice right hand. Miocic landed a leg kick then teed off with a 1-2. A sharp leg kick forced a stance switch for Beltran. Miocic shot in and got stuffed, but Beltran ended up on his back eating blows anyhow. Miocic tried to isolate Beltran's right arm, looking for an Americana. Miocic landed knees to the body from side control. Miocic took his back and ended the fight with some celebratory hammerfists to Beltran's face.
Beltran still has streak of never having been finished in the UFC.