Tag: Opinion

UFC 220 is in the books, and the most hotly anticipated heavyweight title fight in a number of years is in the books with it.

The end result: Stipe Miocic is still your UFC heavyweight champion.

It was a result few predicted going into the event, with Miocic showing up in Boston as an underdog bent on destruction. He eventually came out on top, and he did so in surprisingly dominant fashion.

For five rounds, Miocic mugged Francis Ngannou—who was gassed by the end of the first round—dragging him to the mat repeatedly and holding him there for minutes at a time.

In the leadup to the bout, Bleacher Report Lead MMA Writers Chad Dundas and Scott Harris each provided the sport with the definitive profiles of the combatants.

Now, along with Featured Columnist Matthew Ryder, who sat cageside for the festivities, they break down what they saw and felt as they watched the men they knew so well battle for the sport’s biggest prize.

Matthew Ryder: There remained a haze in the air at TD Garden, an almost literal fog of war sitting heavy at the end of UFC 220. In one way or another, we were all pretty sure we wouldn’t know what to make once Stipe Miocic and Francis Ngannou were done their cage time, and that was the case.

Miocic defused the Cameroonian bomb with surprising aplomb—at no point did it appear he was in any particular trouble, save for a few solid shots that stiffened him up early in the fight.

Seeing as Miocic won and you wrote so expertly on his path to the title fight we watched this weekend, I’ll pass it to you first, Scott.

What did you see out there?

Scott Harris: I saw a guy who executed a game plan. You know what they say about plans, and what tends to happen to them after you absorb some facial trauma. That’s a cliche for a reason, and Miocic defied it.

He seemed to let Ngannou do his thing in the first round, standing with him for extended periods, mixing in takedowns, playing matador to allow Ngannou to dump his adrenaline (and landing some sharp combinations of his own in the process).

Miocic knew full well Ngannou had never been beyond the second round, and he began to pile up takedowns and top control until Ngannou was exhausted enough that his legs went rubbery. In the later rounds, the riding time in the clinch and on the ground seemed almost as torturous as any rain of knees or elbows.

It reminded me of something Miocic’s coach, Marcus Marinelli, told me when I spent some time with Miocic and his camp last fall. He told me what a good listener Miocic is, that “he only needs to be told something once.”

To paraphrase Abraham Lincoln, when Miocic learns something, it stays learned. That was evident in every movement of Saturday’s masterclass.

Ryder: I’m inclined to agree. There was a studied, deliberate intent to the champ early in the bout, where he was evasive and just offensive enough to keep Ngannou honest, casually checking the clock throughout.

As the fight wore on and also out of Ngannou, Miocic only doubled down on his focus and commitment to the plan. It was predictable going in, but it was that much more obvious as you saw it in his eyes and on his face, and saw how effective it was as he began to pull away.

How about you, Chad? What were you thinking as the fight unfolded, in light of your perspective on the challenger?

Chad Dundas: For Francis Ngannou, it was a worst-case scenario in terms of answering our many questions about his skill set.

For example: Could Ngannou land a big shot early to keep Miocic from dragging him into deep water? No.

Did he possess the defensive wrestling to keep the champ from taking him down? No.

If Miocic dragged him to the mat, could Ngannou get back up? No.

Would he be prepared to fight five five-minute rounds if he had to do it? Nah, son.

The lopsided result here highlighted some factors about Ngannou’s training camp that had me scratching my head while visiting him in Las Vegas before his fight against Alistair Overeem in early December. 

First, while Ngannou trains at the new, state-of-the-art UFC Performance Institute—a fact lauded on the UFC 220 broadcast—his longtime coach, Fernand Lopez, still lives in France. So most of the camp is done with Lopez monitoring things from afar. The coach arrives in America in the last couple weeks to put the finishing touches on a game plan, but mostly Ngannou and his UFCPI trainers are on their own.

At least that’s how it worked for Overeem. If indeed they repeated that methodology for Miocic, I can’t help but wonder: Is it the best way? Ngannou certainly didn’t look well prepared for his first UFC championship opportunity.

Second, during our time together Ngannou seemed—if not disdainful, exactly—somewhat dismissive of the grappling arts in general. He obviously prefers to strike and has been very successful at it, but I walked away from our interview wondering exactly what he was doing to shore up his ground game. Against Miocic, it was clear that area still needs a ton of work.

It’s not that unusual for a dominant heavyweight—a guy who is the roughest, toughest person in his own workout room—to fail to address his shortcomings until they are painfully pointed out to him inside the Octagon in front of thousands of people.

I think that’s the case here with Ngannou. The biggest questions about him now will be what he does moving forward to address his flaws, because he can still be a terrifying force in the Octagon.

Ryder: It’s something of an amusing twist of fate, this notion that both Miocic and Ngannou executed the game plans they envisioned, but they found such different paths to the judge’s scorecards at the end of the night.

In the same way, you could see it in Miocic as he was having success with his, you could see the befuddlement in Ngannou that he could not, in fact, simply punch a hole in his opponent’s face and collect a cheque this time.

Any takers on the parallels of these two men in their career trajectories, and where they might be going from here? Let’s not forget that Miocic wasn’t flawless on his way to where he is today, and Ngannou isn’t the first massively hyped guy we’ve seen lose in his first try at a title.

Dundas: Moving forward, Ngannou’s saving graces might be his relative youth and the perennially shallow nature of the heavyweight division. He’ll obviously go on being a marketable figure in a weight class that sorely needs them. So long as he posses that terrifying one-punch-knockout power, people are going to want to watch him.

For example, if the UFC somehow managed to make his next fight against Brock Lesnar, I don’t think many people would turn their noses up at it. In fact, the loss to Miocic might even make a fantasy Ngannou-Lesnar fight seem more interesting, since people might be more apt to give Brock a chance after seeing Ngannou’s many flaws exploited by the champion.

So, I think Ngannou can go on being a major player in the 265-pound class as long as he wants. If he carries on, he’ll likely end up getting more than one shot to win UFC gold.

Here’s one thing that gives me pause, though: This guy’s first love is clearly boxing. He grew up in Cameroon idolizing Mike Tyson and his MMA style is almost solely reliant on his stand-up game. He transitioned to MMA early on only because his coaches told him he’d have an easier time breaking into the sport as a complete unknown.

I can’t help but worry a little that Ngannou’s love of boxing will ultimately win the day. Will he really have the desire to do the work necessary to close the holes in his MMA game? Or at some point will he decide he had it right in the first place: that this wrestling stuff is for the birds and he wants to make a go of it in the sweet science?

With Dana White talking about getting into boxing promotion, the opportunity may soon be there for Ngannou to chase his original dream. After a loss like the one he had against Miocic, I wonder if that’s going to start sounding pretty attractive to one of the hardest punchers on the planet.

Harris: There are plenty of great examples of fighters needing a loss in order to improve or optimize themselves. As you said, Miocic is such an example, taking great strides forward after losses to Stefan Struve and Junior dos Santos. He’s not the champ without those experiences.

As for what’s next, I can practically hear Miocic’s response. “Whatever.” Give him a fair wage and tell him where to sign. Cain Velasquez? Daniel Cormier? Brock Lesnar? Whatever.

A rematch with Ngannou, someday, would make sense, too. Ngannou looked helpless in Miocic’s side control Saturday, so his need to get better should be obvious. It’s an open question as to whether he does it, or if he heads off in another direction, as Chad mentioned, but my Spidey sense says he does.

Miocic will lead by example, noting in his post-fight speech to Joe Rogan that he has “get back in the gym and get better.” He’s not a physical marvel like Ngannou or others, so he knows he needs to stay sharp and get sharper. He’s 35 years old and can’t do this forever, but there’s no reason to think he won’t be here for some time to come. He is not and probably never will be the UFC’s glamor boy, but he’s the heavyweight GOAT now, and that’s more than enough.

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Maybe now Stipe Miocic will get a little respect.

Miocic, 35, became the first man to ever defend the UFC heavyweight championship more than two times consecutively by easily beating challenger Francis Ngannou in UFC 220‘s main event Saturday in Boston.

Plenty of excellent fighters have sat atop the UFC’s heavyweight division. None have been able to turn away more than two challengers in a row. Mostly, it’s just the nature of the heavyweight division; the bigger they are, the harder they fall. Heavyweights are large, violent men, and thus the bouts between them are more prone to defying our expectations.

After all, when a 245-pound man lands a punch, any notion of favorites and underdogs go flying out the window.

Maybe that’s why we all overlooked the 35-year-old Miocic going into his latest title fight. The 6’4″, 263-pound Ngannou was the new, younger and very much larger thing. The shiny thing. He had an interesting back story. The 31-year-old only learned mixed martial arts four years ago. He threw the strongest punch by any human in the history of recorded punches (a thing that ranks up there with the zaniest of UFC-invented promotional tools). I mean, just look at the size of the man. Look at what he can do. He’s not human.

Except, as it turns out, Ngannou was human. All of that muscle, all the power and the Mike Tyson comparisons and the highlight reels of Alistair Overeem’s soul departing from this Earth—all of it was for naught. Because when it comes down to it, as defending light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier told Volkan Oezdemir before spanking him and sending him on his way Saturday: There are levels to this. And Ngannou, for all his crackling potential, is not on Miocic’s level.

But then, it could be that nobody is on Miocic’s level. And why is this something we only realize after the fact? Why are we so eager to embrace the Next Big Thing instead of appreciating the thing we already have that’s so much better? Why did we get so obsessed with Ngannou after one big knockout on the national stage?

Maybe it’s Miocic’s mumbling, aw-shucks Midwestern demeanor. His personality outside the cage—or at least the one the notoriously shy Ohio native allows us to see—is about as exciting as watching paint fade. Perhaps it’s that Miocic seems, at least outside the cage, like a real human being instead of the kind of ridiculous cartoon personality we often find at the upper end of the the UFC’s rankings.

I mean, the man is a real-life paramedic who holds a near-full time job at a fire station in Cleveland while also being the UFC heavyweight champion and a rich man.

Maybe it’s that we’re always looking for the next big thrill, and boy, Ngannou knew how to thrill. At least for one round. After that, his energy reserves were completely dry, and that’s when Miocic took over.

Sure, the rest of the fight was terribly boring, but can you blame Miocic for taking the path he did? Can you blame him for putting Ngannou on his ass whenever humanly possible and keeping him there, by hook or by crook? That’s the calling card of a smart fighter: doing what it takes to win, even if it’s not the most popular or aesthetically pleasing solution.

Miocic cruised to an easy decision with 50-44 scores across the board. It was a one-sided shellacking. When asked by Joe Rogan about claiming the record for most consecutive title defenses in UFC heavyweight history, Miocic responded in exactly the fashion you’d expect (via MMA Fighting’s Ariel Helwani):

 

Next week, Miocic will probably return to the firehouse in Ohio, where his colleagues will razz him. He’ll make coffee for his fellow firemen. He’ll live a normal life, which is really all he seems to want in the first place. But he’ll do so as the greatest UFC heavyweight champion in history.

And next time he fights, whether it’s against Cain Velasquez or any other top contender, we’d do well to remember why it was so ridiculous for us to overlook him in the first place.    

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Francis Ngannou believes it’s a matter of destiny.

He will be UFC heavyweight champion.

The 6’4″, 262-pound knockout artist from Cameroon believes it with the placid, yet unshakable certainty of a man who has already survived the worst things in life.

From the abject poverty of his youth to living homeless on the streets of Paris in his late 20s, Ngannou has pursued the dream of combat sports stardom fueled largely on his own steadfast self belief.

This Saturday at UFC 220, he gets his chance to prove himself right.

Standing in Ngannou‘s way is champion Stipe Miocic, the hard-hitting Cleveland native who also has a lot to fight for. Since winning the belt in May 2016, Miocic has brought a modicum of stability to the perennially problematic UFC heavyweight division.

History, however, is not on the American’s side. In the entire life of the UFC’s 265-pound title, no one has ever successfully defended it more than twice. A win here not only makes Miocic‘s bones as a dominant champion, it immediately forges him as an all-time great. 

On paper, the tandem of Miocic and Ngannou make up one of the most enticing heavyweight title matchups in UFC history.

Depending on how it goes at TD Garden in Boston, their scrap may well take its place on the relatively short list of memorable championship fights in the UFC’s most beleaguered weight class.

Don’t tell that to Ngannou, though. He’s expecting a wipe-out victory rather than a war and has been dismissive of Miocic‘s chances leading up to the bout.

“He’s the champion because the real champ wasn’t there,” Ngannou said recently, via MMAjunkie’s John Morgan and Ken Hathaway. “Now the real champ is on the way, and [Miocic] is not going to be the champion [for] long.”

That sentiment is shared by some observers. Miocic is going off as the slight underdog, according to OddsShark, and Ngannou‘s stupefying KO of Alistair Overeem a bit more than a month ago at UFC 218 is still so fresh that his rise to the crown has started to seem inevitable.

To Ngannou, it has always felt that way.

Growing up in the tiny village of Batie, Cameroon, he always harbored big aspirations. He idolized Mike Tyson and dreamed of becoming the same sort of polarizing champion—one who would conquer the world with a career full of highlight-reel knockouts.

The reality of Ngannou‘s childhood was starkly different than those dreams, however. His parents divorced when he was very young, and by 12 he was working in Cameroon’s dangerous and physically grueling sand mines.

In his early 20s, he fled Batie for Cameroon’s largest city of Douala and began his formal boxing training. Soon, however, Ngannou realized he’d reached the ceiling of what was available to him in Cameroon. At 26, he left his home country for France without any contacts, real prospects or any plan beyond one day becoming champion of the world.

He lived on the streets for a few months—sleeping in parks and taking his meals from homeless shelters—before hooking up with renowned MMA trainer Fernand Lopez and beginning his journey as a professional mixed martial artist.

Fast-forward five years and 12 fights and Ngannou has become nearly everything he dreamed about. He’s taken the UFC heavyweight division by storm, racking up a 6-0 record that includes three first-round knockouts.

His lithe athleticism sets him apart from his more plodding peers, and his power punching is perhaps the most dangerous the Octagon has ever seen.

Talk to his coaches or professional MMA analysts and they’ll tell you it’s Ngannou‘s fight IQ and ability to learn on the fly that makes him truly special. So far, he’s blazed his way through the UFC’s heavyweight ranks while still being very much a work in progress.

If Ngannou continues to grow and evolve as a fighter, there is simply no telling how far he might climb. There’s still one thing left for him to do to complete his childhood fantasies, however: win that title.

Ngannou‘s early idolization of Tyson was perhaps prophetic. Conventional wisdom says UFC brass would very much like to install him as heavyweight champion and promote him as MMA’s answer to Iron Mike.

Miocic certainly believes this is true. The current titlist told Ariel Helwani during an appearance on The MMA Hour earlier this month that he feels like the UFC would be happier if Ngannou takes his place and ensconces himself as the new king of the heavyweight division.

“Obviously, for sure [the UFC wants that],” Miocic said. “Listen, I feel a little bit disrespected, but I’m not going to dwell on it.”

Despite the red-hot hype around Ngannou, the pair actually makes for an unpredictable matchup.

Miocic comes in with more high-level experience and perhaps the better rounded skill set. If he can use his wrestling and push the fight into the later rounds, its possible he’ll be able to exploit some as-yet-unseen weaknesses in Ngannou‘s game.

On the other hand, we simply have no idea yet just how good Ngannou is. He’ll be the bigger, more dangerous athlete, and it’s just as likely he ices Miocic with one of his trademark power shots and adds the champion to his list of victims.

No matter the outcome, Ngannou has already succeeded in grabbing the attention of the MMA world. His inspiring personal story and jaw-dropping knockouts have made him a unique figure in the landscape of the sport.

At 31 years old—relatively young for a UFC heavyweight—this first chance at the title may not be make-or-break for him, either. No matter how it goes, it’s likely he’ll get more than one opportunity to win gold before his career is over.

But that’s another thing you probably wouldn’t want to say to Ngannou this week.

He’s certain his time is now and that his rags-to-riches dream is about to become reality.

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