CLEVELAND -- If not for the likable local hero who dethroned a champion a few months ago, Clevelands sports title drought might not be over.Stipe Miocic beat LeBron James to the punch.In May, Miocic went to Brazil and knocked out Fabricio Werdum in the first round to capture the UFC heavyweight title. The victory triggered a run of championships for Cleveland as the AHLs Lake Erie Monsters won the Calder Cup and James led the Cavaliers to an historic comeback over the Golden State Warriors in the NBA Finals, ending a title dearth stretching to 1964.For Miocic, a Cleveland native who works as a fire fighter and paramedic, starting the string of titles for his hometown was special.Cleveland needed it, he said. For 52 years, man, we had nothing. Its something to be proud of. You can say I broke or I didnt break it, I really dont care. Im just happy we have something to be proud of. Nothing is better than that.Miocic will now become the first Cleveland champion to defend a title as hell face Alistair Overeem in the main event Saturday night in UFC 203, which will take place in sold out Quicken Loans Arena, giving the 34-year-old Miocic a distinct home-octagon advantage.Also on the card is the long-awaited UFC debut of former pro wrestling superstar CM Punk, who at 37 is attempting a transition few would dare attempt. Punk will take on Mickey Gall, a rising 24-year-old welterweight who wanted to fight Punk and will now get his chance. Werdum gets back in action as well for the first time since losing to Miocic against heavyweight Travis Browne, who had some salty words for his opponent during Thursdays news conference.Miocic has gotten a sampling this week of what hell experience Saturday. The 6-foot-4, 240-pounders workouts have drawn big crowds and hundreds of fans were at the news conference, with many of them shouting out encouragement to Miocic, who responded with a quick smile and clenched fist. Its been a whirlwind summer for Miocic, who in addition to taking batting practice with the Cleveland Indians, riding in the Cavs downtown parade attended by nearly one million people, got married.His engagement this weekend with Overeem has some parallels to his fight against Werdum.In front of 45,000 of his countrymen, Werdum came out aggressively and was off balance as he chased after Miocic, who landed a right-handed punch to the Brazilians chin. Werdum may have been slightly overconfident on his home turf, and he paid for it.Miocic promises he wont make the same mistake.It doesnt matter where I fight, he said. It could be Cleveland. It could be Brazil again. Im here for business. Ill walk into the octagon and all Ill think about is me and Alistair, and thats all I care about. No one else is getting in there with us, so Im going to come out the winner and thats the way its going to be.Overeem has spent the past few days saying hes hungrier than Clevelands champ and feels Miocic may be distracted by being home. A former kickboxing champion, Overeem says fighting on familiar ground can be helpful -- and a detriment.It does give you a little extra boost, the Dutchman said. It does give you a little more shivers. On the other hand, theres the extra appearances youve got to do and everyone wants a piece of you. It depends on how you handle it. I think with my 86 fights and my 22 years of training, Ive been able to handle it very well. Its going to be curious how Stipe handles it. Stipe seems very professional, but well see how he handles it on Saturday.Overeem has been targeted by some verbal taunts from Miocic supporters, who cant fathom the idea of him winning in Cleveland. Overeem has learned to like the city and even attended the Cavs victory parade, which he described as madness.It was nice to see a very proud state finally accomplishment championships, he said, adding a threat. I almost feel a little sad that I will be taking something away from them.Not if Miocic can help it. Hes helped change Cleveland, which has spent the summer celebrating like never before.Now were a city of champions, he said, and we plan on keeping it that way for a long time. Air Jordan 14 Cheap . Andrew Luck lost his favourite target and the Indianapolis locker room lost one of its most revered leaders when Reggie Wayne was diagnosed Monday with a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee that will cost him the rest of the season. Jordan 6 Retro For Sale . Jordan Lynch, the all-purpose Heisman Trophy finalist from Northern Illinois, failed to make it into that exclusive club. http://www.jordanshoescheapsale.com/ . Jim Rutherford, President and General Manager of the Carolina Hurricanes, announced Wednesday that the team would assign Swedish forward Elias Lindholm to his nations team for the upcoming tournament. Jordan 33 Shoes For Sale . Schenn scored the game-winning goal and added two assists to lead the Philadelphia Flyers to a 4-1 win over the Calgary Flames at the Scotiabank Saddledome on Tuesday. Air Jordan 10 Cheap . First off, the fans ripped the Cubbies introduction of a fuzzy new kid-friendly mascot named "Clark". RIO DE JANEIRO -- The International Boxing Association has reassigned its executive director in the middle of the Olympics after an examination of the judging and refereeing at the games.AIBA assigned Karim Bouzidi to a new role within the organization Thursday, but declined to elaborate on the reason.Boudizi has been AIBAs executive director under President Wu Ching-Kuo for the past 15 months. The Frenchman is also the CEO of the World Series of Boxing, a team-based professional league run by AIBA.Bouzidi, a former boxing manager who joined AIBA as an executive in 2012, was in charge of operating the Olympic boxing tournament. Those duties will be handled for the tournaments final four days by Franco Falcinelli, a vice president of the executive board and the president of the European Boxing Confederation.The governing body dismissed an unspecified number of referees and judges from the Olympics on Wednesday after determining that less than a handful of Olympic bouts had been incompetently officiated. AIBA declined to name the judges or to state the reasons for their dismissal from Rio.The latest decisions taken emphasized AIBA will not shy away from its responsibilities and will continue to ensure a level playing field and a fair and transparent sport, AIBAs statement read Thursday. It is of paramount importance to protect our sport and its (refereeing and judging) community, whose integrity is constantly put into question.After a quiet opening week in Rio, a handful of questionable decisions threw yet another Olympic boxing tournament into turmoil with widespread condemnation of the judging and refereeing. AIBA moved from punch-counting points system to a professional 10-point scoring system for this Olympics, and most bouts had gone off without complaint until two coonspicuous results favored Russian fighters early this week.ddddddddddddRussias Evgeny Tishchenko won the heavyweight gold medal with a decision over Kazakhstans Vassiliy Levit, who was more aggressive and more exciting throughout the bout. The vocal pro- Levit crowd booed Tishchenko heavily when he was announced as the winner, and again when he received his gold medal.Ireland bantamweight world champion Michael Conlan then lost a quarterfinal decision to Russias Vladimir Nikitin, who took tremendous damage and bled profusely from a previous cut during their bout. Conlan ripped off his vest, made obscene gestures at the ringside judges and then denounced AIBA and Russia as conspirators in corruption.Nikitin was unable to continue in the competition after clinching a bronze medal. He was medically disqualified Thursday morning from his semifinal bout against Shakur Stevenson, who advanced by walkover to Saturdays final against Cuban gold medalist Robeisy Ramirez.Several other fighters have complained vociferously about their losses in the last few days of the Olympics, as they invariably do in every international amateur boxing tournament.AIBA declined to say which bouts were among the handful cited as their basis for removing the unnamed referees and judges. Officials from both of the most high-profile disputed bouts were still working at the Olympics on Wednesday.To me, its back to what we were in 1988, when I fought in the Olympic Games and Roy Jones got robbed in the final, U.S coach Billy Walsh said. I havent seen it as bad since then. What happened after that? The computer came into the equation. Maybe we need to go back to the computer. ' ' '
