Coaches don't often admit their fighters were underprepared for fights, but that's exactly what coach Mike Winkeljohn acknowledged when speaking about Alistair Overeem's preparations for his title fight with Stipe Miocic last month at UFC 203.

Speaking on the Submission Radio podcast, Winkeljohn said that not everything went as they had planned when they got to Cleveland.

"In many ways, he was very well prepared and in a couple of ways he wasn't behind the scenes," Winkeljohn said.  "But you saw what happened. Alistair was going to use his movement and his mind. It was going to work, and it did.

"The whole failure of the whole fight really was, he decided to jump on a guillotine instead of just punching him some more. And sometimes it's those little decisions that are wrong, that make a big difference. At the same time, Stipe is so strong, so strong. He's knocking people out, I mean, that's why he's a world champ."

Winkeljohn then expanded on what he meant by Overeem being underprepared, and he took some of the blame on his own shoulders.

"Well, I think we didn't put enough time into having him, after he gets the first strike in, continuing with the second or the third," Winkeljohn said. "We've been working a lot on the footwork stuff, and his coaches -- he's got some great coaches that are helping him out -- working on movement and kind of stick-and-move type of situation and probably just not enough follow-up that I would have liked to have seen.

"I take that blame on myself that I didn't oversee it, making sure we follow up a little bit more. But with that being said, everything that had been trained and practiced, everything that all his coaches had done, worked out very, very well in the fight. It was just a split-second type of thing that happened. And then he threw a kick where he posted down on his leg after the kick, instead of keeping his balance and he gave Stipe access to take him down. So again, it's a game of inches. Heavyweights, my goodness, they hit so hard that you never know what's going to happen."

Winkeljohn then gave a health update on Overeem and implied that the former Strikeforce champion could be taking some time out to recuperate.

"He doesn't have any memory lapses, and in my mind, it's more of a mild concussion," Winkeljohn said. "It's more for safety, you know, taking some time out. He's had a long career. He's been hit a lot; there's no doubt. But he hasn't been, as of late, the kind of fighter that takes a lot of damage at all in the gym. In fact, I'm not sure if he got hit many times at all getting ready for this fight.

"I think his brain's going to be fine and hope to God it is and he could be back soon. I think Alistair if he really wanted to, if he doesn't need any time off, if he doesn't want to spend time with family, he could be back by the end of the year, early next year."