Francis Ngannou has been the next big thing in the UFC heavyweight division for several years. Just about everyone believed greatness was within the powerful Cameroonian challenger’s reach if he could ever put his prodigious talents together.
All that potential was realized in six sensational minutes on Saturday night when Ngannou took the belt away from the most accomplished fighter in the division’s history.
Ngannou stopped Stipe Miocic with ferocious punches early in the second round to claim the heavyweight title at UFC 260.
Photo: Jeff Bottari via USA TODAY
Ngannou (11-2) avenged his blowout loss to Miocic in 2018 by demonstrating everything he has learned in the ensuing three years.
The first UFC heavyweight champion from Africa flattened Miocic (21-3) twice early in the second, finally buckling the champ’s knees and ending the bout 52 seconds into the round.
“Man, it’s amazing,” Ngannou said. “The feeling of it is just great. Imagine something you’ve been waiting for your entire life, and struggling to have it. Sometimes I felt like I was drowning and I had to struggle back, but now we’re here.”
Ngannou won a fairly quiet first round with superior striking and ground work, but there was nothing quiet about the finish.
Ngannou knocked down Miocic 22 seconds into the second round with a crisp left hand to Miocic’s face, but the champion ate several punches to get up. Miocic backpedaled away and even landed a right hand that stung Ngannou, but the challenger loaded up a picture-perfect left hook that bent Miocic’s legs at a gruesome angle and put him on the canvas again, where Ngannou landed one finishing hammer fist.
“When the journey is longer, the reward is always more appreciated,” Ngannou said. “I’m sure I would have been happy three years ago, but I think now, I have a different perspective about it, being happy about my improvement.”
The violence was exactly what Ngannou’s fans and coaches expected when the long-anticipated changing of the guard atop the heavyweight division finally happened in this rematch of two highly likable fighters.
Ngannou tried to call his mother in Cameroon immediately after the fight, but said he could not get through to her because everyone was “going crazy” celebrating his win.
“I can’t talk to anybody in Cameroon right now,” he said. “It’s a good craziness, for a good reason.”
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