MMA Fighting · May 15, 2016
UFC 198 Aftermath: Can Stipe Miocic break the heavyweight title curse?
Esther Lin photoThe lineage of the championship belt won by Stipe Miocic on Saturday night traces all the way back to the Superfight title created in the UFC's earliest days as a way to promote single fights between stars outside of what had turned into a rigid tournament format.
The belt, first held by Ken Shamrock in 1995, gave way to the current heavyweight title at UFC 12, when Superfight champ Dan Severn lost to UFC 11 tournament winner Mark Coleman.
And when Miocic scored a one-punch knockout of Fabricio Werdum to claim the belt in front of 45,000 fans to win the championship in Curitiba, Brazil, a 21-year streak going all the way back to Shamrock continued.