Miocic deserves next shot at UFC heavyweight title

It was proposed across Twitter at one point Saturday night that the six-fight win streak of Andrei Arlovski was more smoke and mirrors than any substantial evidence he was good enough to recapture the Ultimate Fighting Championship heavyweight title he held 10 years ago.

Then he stepped into the octagon for the co-main event of UFC 195 at the MGM Grand Garden.

Then it took 54 seconds for the smoke to rise and the mirrors to shatter around a fallen Arlovski.

It's a whale of a challenge, waiting so long between chasing such a title and owning any sort of legitimate chance at again standing atop the summit of your weight class.

Arlovski won't get the opportunity to again fight for the heavyweight championship.

At least not now.

Perhaps not ever.

Maybe it's true that you never say never in the UFC, but Arlovski's pursuit is about as close to such finality as one can be without being smacked over the head with such reality.

He got smacked around hard enough Saturday.

If we are talking about who deserves the next opportunity at fighting for the right to wear the champion's belt, Stipe Miocic stands front and center and, for good reason, all sorts of confident.

He needed less than a minute to land a right hand to Arlovski's head and then finish it with another right and a left. Arlovski has also dabbled in a movie and TV career. On Saturday, he played the role of falling tree.

In other words, there was more action in a few exchanges between Robbie Lawler and Carlos Condit in a spectacular main event that followed than what we saw in Miocic-Arlovski.

The fourth-ranked heavyweight, Miocic seemed to use more energy sprinting across the mat to implore UFC president Dana White for that title shot than he did ending Arlovski's dream that was shaped upon his return to the UFC in 2014.

Four wins would follow for the former champion, and they were good ones.

When you beat Antonio Silva and Travis Browne and Frank Mir, those are resume-building victories. But the Mir fight was sluggish and boring and perhaps a sign of things to come Saturday.

"A lot of people said I was done, and I was mad at that," Arlovski said last week. "I was disappointed."

Now, he's just beaten.

Heavyweight champion Fabricio Werdum is set to fight Cain Velasquez at UFC 196 on Feb. 6 at the MGM Grand, a rematch of Velasquez losing the title in June.

The question now is, who gets the winner?

There is first the case of Alistair Overeem and his free agency after a knockout of Junior dos Santos last month.

Negotiations can get interesting when this level of a fight is at stake, and it's not completely crazy to think the UFC might entice Overeem back to the promotion with the promise of an immediate title shot against the winner of Werdum-Velasquez.

If so, Miocic made things that much tougher on White to do so with Saturday's performance.

"I've had a bad few weeks personally with some family issues," Miocic said. "I just really want to have my shot, and I know I deserve it. I think this win was impressive enough, and I'm very emotional and jacked about the way it ended up. This is what I signed up for. (Arlovski) is a former champ and a super tough guy, a really nice guy. He can always get stung and come back, so I knew I had to put him away and put a stamp on my title shot.

"The guy had a resurgence and trained hard and was winning fights. But it's different with heavyweights to try and (win championships 10 years apart). It's not like with smaller fighters. Heavyweights have a lot of power. Anything can happen. You can get caught at any time."

It's a reality that Arlovski knows well today, having been caught early and offering no defense. He is 36, and Saturday marked his 37th professional mixed martial arts fight. He was ranked fifth in the heavyweight division entering the night, but the difference between that and again landing a title shot now seems farther apart than Las Vegas and his native Belarus.

It's not the easiest of pursuits, trying to win another championship after so many years.

Ask the Cubs and Maple Leafs.

Sometimes, it's not meant to be, no matter how valiant the effort.

Sometimes, the other guy is too good and you get to play the role of a falling tree.

Sometimes, the smoke rises and the mirrors shatter and reality smacks you in the head just after that first right hand.

— Ed Graney can be reached at egraney@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4618. He can be a heard on "Seat and Ed" on Fox Sports 1340 from 2 to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. On Twitter: @edgraney.