This Day in MMA History: May 13

The Ultimate Fighting Championship on May 13, 2017 pulled into Dallas for UFC 211.

Atop a loaded lineup of fights was a title doubleheader featuring the largest and smallest championship belts in the UFC, with their owners in a position to make history. In the co-main event, strawweight queen Joanna Jedrzejczyk was set to defend her title for a record fifth time against Jessica Andrade, while in the main event, heavyweight champ Stipe Miocic faced Junior dos Santos. A successful defense would be Miocic’s second, pulling him into a four-way tie with Randy Couture, Tim Sylvia and Brock Lesnar for the most in UFC history.

Both champs defended in resounding fashion. Jedrzejczyk carved up the burly but much shorter “Bate Estaca” for five mostly one-sided rounds, denying Andrade’s takedown attempts and punishing her with jabs and hard counters on the feet. After 25 minutes, “Joanna Champion,” barely breathing hard, swept all five rounds on all three judges’ scorecards.

The heavyweight headliner was equally lopsided but much shorter: Miocic blasted “Cigano” with a huge straight right and some follow-up ground punches, notching a technical knockout at 2:22 of the first round. In addition to moving Miocic into that four-way tie for the most heavyweight title defenses, it avenged his 2014 decision loss to dos Santos in resounding fashion.

Three years later, all four participants in the UFC 211 title doubleheader remain at or near the top of their respective divisions. Jedrzejczyk would go on to lose the strawweight title to Rose Namajunas in her next fight, but after a brief foray at flyweight, she returned to strawweight and gave champ Weili Zhang all she could handle for five rounds, showing herself to be far from expired goods. Andrade bounced back from the loss, putting together a three-fight win streak and earning a shot at Namajunas. She made good on the opportunity, knocking out “Thug Rose” with a second-round slam to become the fourth strawweight champion in UFC history. Her reign would be short, however, as Zhang knocked her out in 42 seconds in her first title defense.

Miocic defeated Francis Ngannou in his next outing, taking sole possession of the UFC record for most consecutive heavyweight title defenses before losing to Daniel Cormier in July 2018. He reclaimed the belt with a fourth-round knockout of Cormier a year later and is the reigning UFC heavyweight champion.