The Scout: Stipe Miocic vs Francis Ngannou

Posted on March 25, 2021March 26, 2021 | Posted by The Scout

Having just his third fight in more than two years, current champion Stipe Miocic (20-3) will be looking to overtake Randy Couture’s record for heavyweight title-bout victories in the UFC 260 main event.

In his way is the number one heavyweight contender, Francis Ngannou (15-3), who was bested by Stipe back in January 2018. Ngannou has been unstoppable (and terrifying) since that defeat, piling up round 1 knockout wins against Curtis Blaydes, Cain Valesquez, Junior dos Santos and Jairzinho Rozenstruik. Those four fights lasted just 160 seconds combined.

The 2018 meeting between these two was fairly one-sided with Miocic surviving a few early strikes, and then taking Ngannou to the ground over and over, and controlling things from the mat.

Though we haven’t seen it in action (through no fault of his own), Ngannou’s camp have been big on the improvements in his grappling and cardio, parts of his game that were picked apart by Stipe in fight number one.

It’s hard to picture Stipe knocking Ngannou out, so he will likely be looking to replicate the dominant strategy from the first fight. He couldn’t (or didn’t have to) finish Daniel Cormier within the 25 minutes of Cormier’s last professional fight, and Ngannou is a much bigger (and badder) man.

If Stipe can be evasive early and survive the opening round, he will be hoping to frustrate Ngannou, and then look to clinch, push for awkward grappling exchanges and take this fight to the mat.

Ngannou showed against Rozenstruik that even a glancing blow of his can end a fight. He’s had plenty of time since their first meeting to prepare for this, and work on the glaring weaknesses that Stipe was able to exploit.

Ngannou is the most dangerous man in the UFC, but he may need to show a more polished display of martial arts to win this. That said, he is just as likely to end this fight in the opening minute(s). Either way I’m with The Predator within the five rounds.

Suggested Bet: Francis Ngannou by KO/TKO @ $2*

*Odds correct as at 6pm, 25th March 2021.

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