This weekend, UFC president Dana White revealed Francis Ngannou was next in line to take on Stipe Miocic for the heavyweight title. Rightfully so, Ngannou has been on an absolute tear recently, picking up four straight knockout wins with all four lasting a combined total of two minutes and 42 seconds.
There's no one in the UFC who hits harder and Francis has a 'puncher's chance' against just about anyone, but champ Miocic has already proved he has the blueprint to beat the 33-year-old. Heading into their first meeting back in January 2018, Francis looked unstoppable. The striker was 11-1 at the time and was coming into his title fight off the back of 10 straight victories, finishing every single one of his opponents.
In fact, Francis was the favourite for the fight, but Miocic showed just why he's now regarded as the greatest UFC heavyweight of all time. Stipe ran rings around Ngannou and utilised his grappling to really restrict Francis' knockout power. Within two rounds the Cameroonian-Frenchman was totally gassed out and a shell of the man we'd previously seen.
Since then Ngannou dropped a decision to Derrick Lewis, showing a real reluctance to press his opponent due to his gas tank failing him in the previous fight, before going on a four-fight tear against Curtis Blaydes, Cain Velasquez, Junior Dos Santos and Jairzinho Rozenstruik.
Don't get me wrong, Ngannou has looked great in his last four fights, how can you not when the longest it's taken you to put your opponent to sleep is one minute and 11 seconds? It's absurd, but I'm struggling to see where he's made the necessary improvements to best champion Miocic.
Ngannou is just relentless in his striking, straight from the off he's just a monster, wasting no time in throwing haymaker after haymaker at his opponents until one inevitably lands. But that's the same man who first fought Stipe and had no answer when the champ did an excellent job avoiding his heavy hands. Even when Ngannou landed, Stipe's chin held up and he had no plan b for that.
In a recent interview, Miocic revealed that while Francis has looked great, he sees the fight going exactly the same way and he's probably right. Ngannou is still displaying the same reckless approach he used against the champ. His recent win against Rozenstruik a prime example of that. Yes, he beat the then-undefeated fighter in 20 seconds, but the way Ngannou just ran out the Surinamese man and wildly threw punches hoping one would land, just wouldn't work against the champ.
Stipe's movement is too good, his IQ too high and his footwork too fast for him to fall in such a way. His chin may not hold up quite as well as it did in the first fight, but if Ngannou approaches Miocic as he did Rozenstruik, this fight will once again be the champ's for the taking.
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