The allure of heavyweight fighting is that the hardest hitters can deliver fireworks at any moment.

And few heavyweight fights delivered whirlwind action like Stipe Miocic's UFC heavyweight title defense against Alistair Overeem on Saturday night in Cleveland.

Defending the title at Quicken Loans Arena in his hometown of Cleveland, Miocic got out of several hairy situations before delivering a memorable knockout of Overeem to retain his title. The time of the finish in one of the most exciting one-round fights you'll ever see was 4:27 of the opening round.

"I train that s**t every day," said Miocic (16-2), who has won seven of his past eight fights. "I'm still the heavyweight champion of the world."

The raucous sellout crowd was behind the hometown boy from the beginning, but Overeem drew first blood. He rocked Miocic with a big right hand as Miocic pushed forward, then went for a guillotine choke.

Miocic escaped, but after the fight, Overeem, a former Strikeforce champion, claimed Miocic tapped.

"I believe when I punched him and he went down," Overeem (41-15, 1 NC) said. "I got him in a guillotine choke, he tapped, the ref didn't see it. In my opnion, he tapped. I think I'm the better fighter. He clearly tapped."

Regardless, the fight continued and both competitors landed heavy blows. The end came when Miocic got Overeem to the ground in a scramble and began landing big ground-and-pound shots. By the time the bout was waved off, Miocic was bouncing Overeem's head off the mat with his punches.

"He kicked harder than I thought, he put me on his ass, didn't he?" Miocic said after his 13th career finish. "He put me on my ass, he kicks hard as f**k."

Overeem had a four-fight win streak snapped with the loss.