New UFC Heavyweight Champ Stipe Miocic returns home to celebration, fanfare in Cleveland

Stipe Miocic returned home to Cleveland, Ohio, on Monday to a hero’s welcome after capturing the UFC Heavyweight Championship in Brazil on Saturday night at UFC 198. Miocic documented some of the response upon his homecoming on social media Monday, expressing his gratitude to the fans who have supported him to date.

We made it back to the land! First, I want to thank everyone that supported me! You have no idea what that means to me! Words can’t express how I feel… From the moment I got off the plane and the United flight crew and fans were waiting at the gate to the people at the baggage claim… then going to Strongstyle and seeing my mom, family, friends and teammates cheering for me ( I did cry a lot )hahaha..This has been an amazing journey- but we are not done yet! We are just scratching the surface! I love you all and thank you for having my back! Also, a big shout out to THE LAND, for everyone I didn’t see and had my back you are amazing!!!! I have one thing to say CLEVELAND AGAINST THE WORLD BABY!!!! The curse is done!!!! #ANDNEW #clevelandagainsttheworld #theland #clevelandtough

A photo posted by Stipe Miocic (@stipemiocicufc) on May 16, 2016 at 1:00pm PDT

Absolutely overwhelming pic.twitter.com/V1vgo7ptWr

— Stipe Miocic (@stipemiocicufc) May 16, 2016

Craziness pic.twitter.com/mMmbhEttPq

— Stipe Miocic (@stipemiocicufc) May 16, 2016

[Photo (c) Mark J. Rebilas via USA Today Sports]

Penick’s Analysis: Good for him. He deserves the celebration, and it’s great to see his home fans embracing him. The UFC’s got a couple of fall events left to schedule still, with UFC 203 and UFC 204 currently without locations or official dates, so bringing a Heavyweight Title fight to Cleveland in September or October could be a very workable scenario for them. It’s something for which Miocic would be very much in favor, and it would make a lot of sense for the fall with how many times they’ve already hit Las Vegas in the last year.

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