Top-ranked UFC heavyweight contender Francis Ngannou was taken down six times in his UFC 220 title fight against Stipe Miocic, a five-round drubbing that exposed multiple holes in the challenger’s still-developing MMA game.
His ego may have been one of them.
With that in mind, maybe we can scale back the high-fives and butt-slaps every time the power-punching “Predator” eats from the Harry Houdini bread basket. Impressive? No question, but we’ve seen these parlor tricks before (replay here).
At least this time he made it past two.
Ngannou will get a second crack at Miocic in the UFC 260 pay-per-view (PPV) main event next month in Las Vegas, another 25-minute affair that may require “The Predator” to rely on something other than his one-hitter quitter, which the battle-tested champion was able to neutralize in their first go-round.
As former titleholder Daniel Cormier once put it, “excited” fanboys need to “slow down.”