“There is a reason Francis Ngannou was so tentative in the fight against Derrick Lewis”.
Former heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier has labelled Derrick Lewis the most powerful puncher in the UFC following ‘The Black Beast’s’ highlight reel knockout of Curtis Blaydes at UFC Vegas 19 on Saturday, leading to some criticism from the MMA Twittersphere.
The Black Beast!!!!!! @Thebeast_ufc has the most power ever
— Daniel Cormier (@dc_mma) February 21, 2021
“The Black Beast!!!!!! @Thebeast_ufc has the most power ever,” Cormier tweeted following Lewis’ second-round KO of Blaydes.
‘DC’ responded to the criticism by highlighting Lewis’ win over Ngannou from 2018 and the fact Lewis has more KO wins than ‘The Predator’ and just broke the record for the most knockouts in UFC heavyweight history at 12.
“Everyone started going Francis, Francis, Francis. People — there is a reason Francis Ngannou was so tentative in the fight against Derrick Lewis,” Cormier said on his show with Ariel Helwani (via Middle Easy), referencing how gunshy Ngannou was against Lewis. “It’s the only time he’s ever fought like that. Francis just bullrushes everybody from Stipe Miocic to Alistair Overeem. Almost a blatant disregard for them and their power.”
When it comes to power, @dc_mma puts @Thebeast_ufc up against any heavyweight, “even Francis Ngannou.” pic.twitter.com/uvkCb9O1o1
— ESPN MMA (@espnmma) February 22, 2021
“He stood and took pictures with Derrick Lewis because of the power coming back in his direction. So let’s not go acting as if Derrick Lewis doesn’t have power to match anyone in the heavyweight division, even Francis Ngannou. And when you talk about knockouts, nobody has more than Derrick so how do you say that another guy has more power than him? And that’s not a knock on Francis — that’s just reality.”
It’s a tough one to call, but the stats don’t lie. Lewis, as inconsistent as he may be, has 12 knockouts to Ngannou’s 9, but there could be an argument that the latter is the cleaner knockout artist of the two.
Ngannou is scheduled to take on Stipe Miocic for the heavyweight title at UFC 260 on March 27 while Lewis will likely sit out and wait to fight the winner.