Alright Cleveland, ARE YOU READY! On Saturday, September 10, 2016, Cleveland showed that it was very ready for the Ultimate Fighting Club! Experiencing this first hand with my friend Austin at Quicken Loans Arena for the inaugural event, before the doors opened, fans got to go to Gateway Plaza, between Progressive Field and the Q, to UFC Fan Village. Forrest Griffin, Anthony "Showtime" Pettis and Donald "Cowboy" Cerrone were all there signing autographs. The lines to meet these guys were ridiculously long, but that did not diminish our enthusiasm for what was about to go down that night.
The crowd at the Q that night was absolutely spectacular from the first fight until the end. The crowd got bigger and bigger as the night went on as predicted. The only sections that were not filled were the sections that had screens in front, blocking the view. The crowd wasn't at full capacity or volume until Miocic vs Overeem, however; this doesn't mean that the other fights weren't exciting.
In total, there was supposed to be 12 fights on the card for UFC 203 in Cleveland, but two fights had to be removed from the card. One fight that got suspended was a light heavyweight (205 lbs.) bout between American CB Dollaway and Brazilian Francimar Barroso. Unfortunately, CB Dollaway hurt his back during an elevator accident. So the early preliminary fight was between Yancy Madeiros and Sean Spencer. Madeiros won by submission in round 2.
The top fight on the preliminary card was a women's bantamweight (135 lbs) bout. This was a 3-round fight that featured another Cleveland fighter. Jessica "Evil" Eye was facing Bethe "Pitbull" Correia. Correia's last fight was in her home country of Brazil, where she lost to Ronda Rousey in the main event at UFC 190. Meanwhile, Jessica "Evil" Eve was coming off a loss to Sara McMann, so something had to give. With the fight being in Cleveland, the crowd was supporting Eye, but Correia had other ideas and defeated Eye by decision.
The main card had some strange, as well as straightforward fights. The first fight on the main card was an 115-pound bout between Jessica Andrade and Joanne "JoJo" Calderwood. This was one of the straightforward fights as Andrade won by 1st round submission. The next fight was one of the strange fights between "The California Kid" Urijah Faber and Jimmie Rivera. Rivera came away with the victory by unanimous decision. Then came the 2nd of three strange fights. This was the MMA debut of CM Punk, but he wasn't getting a welcome to the UFC cage as he took on Mickey Gall. Gall won by 1st round submission. The third strange fight was a rematch between Fabricio Werdum and Travis Browne. Werdum opened the fight with a flying knee and later Browne broke his hand, but the fight wasn't stopped. Eventually, Werdum won by decision, but after the fight, Fabricio kicked one of Browne's trainers.
Now, the arena had filled to near capacity and the crowd got louder and louder. Which could mean only one thing, it was time for the main event of the evening. Check out this video I recorded of the fighter introductions:
The main event was absolutely amazing. Whenever Miocic landed a punch, the crowd would cheer. Throughout the entire fight, the crowd was cheering for Stipe Miocic. Why not? The fight was in his backyard.
Early on, it looked as though Alistair Overeem was going to ruin the Cleveland party when he had Stipe in a guillotine choke, but Stipe was able to fight through it, as the crowd was energized. The 1st round continued, and it seemed as though Alistair kept running away from Stipe, but later he tried for a leg a kick and Stipe was ready. Stipe grabbed the leg and took Overeem down, and just started whaling punches on Overeem and that was all he needed. 
Miocic successfully defended his belt in Cleveland. hopefully, the UFC comes back to Cleveland soon.
