UFC President Dana White said a heavyweight title fight was on tap for March 27.
During the press conference for Saturday’s UFC Fight Island 7, UFC President Dana White spoke about what’s coming down the pipeline for the first quarter of 2021. Among the UFC’s plans are a heavyweight title fight that pits champion Stipe Miocic and top contender Francis Ngannou.
According to White the UFC is targeting the main event of UFC 260 for the fight, which is scheduled to take place on March 27 at a location to be determined. This show is also expected to feature a featherweight title fight between Alex Volkanovski and Brian Ortega.
The last time we saw Miocic he took a unanimous decision over Daniel Cormier inside the UFC APEX at UFC 252 in August. In doing so Miocic set a record for most UFC heavyweight title defenses (4). The win likely solidified Miocic as the greatest heavyweight of his generation (and perhaps ever).
Miocic only has three losses to his name (and 20 wins). His first defeat was a TKO to Stefan Struve in his third UFC fight, back in 2012. Two years later he lost a decision to Junior dos Santos in a Fight of the Night effort.
Since then he has looked unbeatable other than a shock first round KO to Daniel Cormier at UFC 226 in 2018. Miocic has beaten Cormier twice since then.
At UFC 220 in 2018 Miocic took a convincing unanimous decision victory over Ngannou to defend his title. That fight saw Ngannou at a loss when it came to solving Miocic’s high pressure wrestling offence.
The loss was Ngannou’s first UFC defeat and came after stunning stoppages of Alistair Overeem and Andrei Arlovski. Immediately after his loss in the title fight, Ngannou lost to Derrick Lewis.
After that, ‘Predator’ has gone on a tear. The Cameroonian is currently on a four fight winning streak, which includes a TKO win over Curtis Blaydes (in 45 seconds), a KO win over Cain Velasquez (in 26 seconds), a TKO over Junior dos Santos (in a minute and eleven seconds) and a KO of Jairzinho Rozenstruik (in just 20 seconds).
The win over Rozenstruik was at UFC 249 last May. Since then Ngannou has been vocal about his lack of activity and the lack of movement in the UFC’s heavyweight rankings. Ngannou also took some time out of campaigning for a new title shot to entertain the idea of a fight with Jon Jones. However, the UFC wasn’t willing to invest enough money into that match-up to make it happen.