UFC heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic knocks out Alistair Overeem after crazy contest at UFC 203

PRIDE of Cleveland Stipe Miocic successfully defended his UFC heavyweight title after a wild one-round battle with Dutchman Alistair Overeem at .

But that only told part of the story, as Miocic had to overcome adversity to claim the win and retain his title.

The Ohio firefighter looked like he was heading to defeat when British-born Overeem floored him with a huge straight left early in the round.

'The Reem' followed the champion to the mat and tried to lock up a guillotine choke, but the stunned champion managed to somehow wriggle free and avoid a quickfire submission loss.

And when he took Overeem to the mat later in the round Miocic applied the decisive finish, hammering the Dutchman with ground strikes, knocking him out clean.

“He hit harder than I thought," admitted Miocic after the fight.

"He knocked me down but I wasn’t hurt.

"I said I would keep this belt for a long time and I did it.

"I wanted to shut him down, turn the mother board off.”

And he did that in decisive fashion to complete his maiden title defence and send the packed Cleveland crowd delirious as he led them in the famous state chant of "OH-IO!" in celebration.

The co-main event produced a bizarre contest as former world champion Fabricio Werdum claimed a decision victory over Travis Browne in their heavyweight rematch.

Browne suffered a dislocated finger early on in the contest, with the referee inexplicably stopping the action to allow him to seek medical attention.

That intervention should have resulted in a TKO loss for Browne, but the fight was allowed to resume, as the pair engaged in a disjointed three-round contest that saw Brazilian Werdum run out a comfortable victor on the scorecards.

But a bizarre skirmish between Werdum and Browne's coach Edmund Tarverdyan threatened to overshadow the fight, with the Brazilian appearing to kick the coach in the brief melee before cooler heads prevailed.