Stipe Miocic plays spoiler over Daniel Cormier at UFC 252

Daniel Cormier was hoping for a storybook moment in what he insisted was the last fight of his legendary career.

He didn’t get it.

Stipe Miocic retained the belt and the unofficial title of best heavyweight in UFC history with a unanimous-decision victory in the main event of UFC 252 at the Apex in Las Vegas on Saturday night.

The judges scored the fight 49-46, 49-46 and 48-47 in favor of Miocic.

“He’s a hell of a fighter,” Miocic said. “I wish him nothing but the best. God bless him. Amazing champion, amazing ambassador, I have no ill will towards him.”

Cormier found success over the first 10 minutes until he was dropped by a big right hand at the end of the second round. He barely hung on until the bell as Miocic tried to finish him with right hands.

Cormier was then poked in the eye late in the third round, doing significant visible damage, a foul that was missed by referee Marc Goddard.

“Look at my eye,” Cormier said after the fight. “I couldn’t see the rest of the fight. I can’t see anything out of my left eye, it’s black. It is what it is. It doesn’t matter.

“It just sucks. Being on the losing end of two big fights and trilogies, it’s a very sad position to be in. But I will deal with it as I’ve dealt with things in the past.”

Miocic took some big shots, but remained steady throughout the fight. He was able to neutralize the sporadic takedown and clinch attempts of the Olympic wrestler and land enough at distance to earn the favor of the judges and capture the rubber match in the storied trilogy.

Rising superstar Sean O’Malley had insult added to injury as he was handed the first loss of his career by bantamweight Marlon Vera.

O’Malley went down with an apparent right ankle injury late in the first round. Vera quickly pounced, crushing him with a series of elbows and scoring the biggest win of his career.

“He has a big right hand, but he doesn’t throw in numbers,” Vera said. “So I took the first round to see what he had and to be honest, the guy has a lot of hype. Good for him, but he doesn’t have the dog I have inside. The dog I have inside is bigger than all of these guys.”

Vera improved to 6-1 in his last seven fights with the lone loss coming in a controversial decision loss to Song Yadong in May.

“Say something now,” Vera said after very clearly playing the B-side in the buildup to the bout. “A lot of people have a comment, have an opinion, it doesn’t matter. The sky’s the limit. I’m a motivated man.”

O’Malley, a promotional darling who had already won two fights in 2020 by first-round knockout, was taken from the venue on a stretcher.

Jairzinho Rozenstruik bounced back from his first career loss in May with a devastating knockout of former heavyweight champion Junior dos Santos late in the second round.

Rozenstruik appeared tentative early in his return from a 20-second knockout loss to Francis Ngannou in May until he dropped the former champion with a right hand near the cage and unleashed a barrage of shots as dos Santos tried to get back up.

It was finally called to a halt when Rozenstruik folded him over on the mat with one final shot.

Rising bantamweight contender Merab Dvalishvili extended his winning streak to five with a unanimous decision over two-time flyweight title contender John Dodson.

All five wins have gone the distance.

Dvalishvili kept the pressure on Dodson, attempting 20 takedowns over the 15-minute fight and limiting Dodson’s speed and offense.

“This is already big for me, I feel this energy,” the 29-year-old Tblisi, Georgia, native said of his building momentum in the division. “A lot of people, a lot of young kids, look up to me and they dream about UFC and I’m happy that I can show them that if you work, you can be like me. I’m just beginning, I’m just starting, I can do a lot more.”

Also on the main card, Daniel Pineda made a successful return after six years away from the UFC by stopping Herbert Burns in a bout contested at a catchweight after Burns missed weight by 3.5 pounds on Friday.

On the preliminary card, Kai Kamaka’s gamble paid off in the form of a unanimous-decision victory over featherweight Toney Kelley.

Kamaka has been pursuing a UFC contract and was informed by his management the best way to get it may be to head to Las Vegas to train and hope to get the call to fill in as a late-notice replacement on one of the cards being held at the Apex.

His phone rang Thursday and two days later he had a UFC victory to his name.

“I’m just relieved to be here, I know I belong,” said Kamaka, who temporarily left behind his pregnant wife and two children in Hawaii. “It was perfect, but everybody saw that I belong here. I’m not working to get here anymore, I’m not working to move up the ladder.”

He said his celebration plans mostly focus on getting home to his children and wife, who is due to give birth to their first son in a month.

Contact Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AdamHillLVRJ on Twitter.