The Walkmen: UFC 203 ‘Miocic vs. Overeem’

UFC 203 “Miocic vs. Overeem” was loaded with terrific action, a few slick submissions and some highlight-reel knockouts on Saturday at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland. As always, the violence inside the Octagon was accompanied by the musical tastes of the fighters who authored it (online betting).

Heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic opted to go with Machine Gun Kelly’s “Till I Die” ahead of his title defense against Alistair Overeem in the main event, and it served him well. Considering how he overcame an early knockdown from the Dutch kickboxer and then knocked him cold with ground-and-pound, Miocic has designs on keeping the UFC gold for a long time, perhaps until he dies. Yasuharu Takanashi’s “Pride Fighting Championships Official Theme” ushered Overeem to the cage.

Meanwhile, Phil Brooks, aka “CM Punk,” made his long-awaited and heavily hyped debut and ignited the capacity crowd with Living Colour’s “Cult of Personality” -- his trademark walkout song from his days as a World Wrestling Entertainment superstar. Brooks looked like a fish out of water in a submission loss to Mickey Gall, who stole the show with “Hey Mickey” from 1980s one-hit wonder Toni Basil.

Other standout tracks from UFC 203 included The Animals’ “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood” (Joanne Calderwood), Joe Esposito’s “You’re the Best” (Travis Browne), Salt N Pepa’s hip-hop classic “Shoop” (Drew Dober) and Coolio’s “Gangsta’s Paradise” (Jason Gonzalez).

A rundown of the remaining tracks follows:

UFC 203 Walkout Songs

Fabricio Werdum: Gabriel O Pensador | “Fe Na Luta”
Urijah Faber: Tupac | “California Love”
Jimmie Rivera: Don Omar | “Conteo”
Jessica Andrade: One Direction | “Drag Me Down”
Jessica Eye: Lorine Chia and MGK | “Goodtime”
Bethe Correia: David Gueta | “Titanium”
Caio Magalhaes: Pregador Luo | “Vou Colher Sorrindo”
Brad Tavares: Alborosie | “Tears”
Nik Lentz: Shearwater | “Whipping Boy”
Michael McBride: Lorde | “Yellow Flicker Beat”
Yancy Medeiros: Damien Marley and Skrillex | “Make It Bun Dem”
Sean Spencer: Kid Kudi | “Cleveland is the Reason”