Efter att ha förlorat två matcher mot Stipe Miocic ”titelmatch” och Derrik Lewis så har nu Francis Ngannou tre raka knockout segrar mot Curtis Blaydes, Cain Velasquez och Junior Dos Santos.
Ngannou anser nu att han borde vara näst på tur att få utmana Miocic om tungviktsbältet oavsett om den tidigare mästaren Daniel Cormier väljer att pensionera sig eller inte. Cormier besegrade Miocic under UFC 226, Las Vegas juli 2018 men förlorade deras returmöte under UFC 241, Anaheim augusti 2019. Cormier meddelade sedan att han skulle fundera över sin framtid.
UFC:s president Dana White utryckte efter UFC 241 att han är intresserad av ett trilogi möte mellan Miocic och Cormier om Cormier vill fortsätta fightas.
Ngannou berättar i en intervju med MMAFighting att han inte har några problem med att Cormier och Miocic möts igen så länge han får sin chans först.
“My concern is not about Daniel Cormier having a trilogy. They can have a trilogy or a four-ogy or a five-ogy, whatever they want to. My concern is just about my turn, about my title fight. I can fight Stipe and then the fight after [can be the trilogy] I don’t have no problem with that. My only problem is me fighting for the title. I deserve it.
“I deserve it based on my last three performances. I’m just expecting the title shot. Then whatever happens between DC and Stipe, if they decide to solve it, I don’t have a problem with that. I will be excited to see that trilogy but right now I have to fight for the title, which makes sense.”
Ngannou berättade även att han var imponerad utav Cormier och Miocic fight.
“I was very impressed. I did not expect that fight to go that way. That impressed me, both of them. That was a very, very good fight. It was very exciting to watch. As I said, it made me proud of my division because you feel like you are really challenging people. The challenge is high so it makes you more excited.
“I knew everything could happen at any moment. Even though they were pushing each other, this is heavyweight and anything can happen at any moment. Something like that we expect. Actually when [Stipe] started setting up the uppercut to the body, I felt like something was going to happen. DC was feeling it. He was hurt. It’s breaking him down.”
Returmöte mot Miocic
Ngannou utmanade Miocic om tungviktsbältet under dennes första sejour som mästare under UFC 220, Boston januari 2018. Ngannou var innan dess obesegrad i UFC med sex raka vinster. Bland annat med imponerande första ronds avslut över Andrei Arlovski och Alistair Overeem. Mot Miocic blev det tydligt med kvalitetsskillnad dom emellan då Miocic dominerade Ngannou under fem ronder och vann genom enhälligt domslut.
Ngannou berättar nu att han lärt sig av misstagen i fighten mot Miocic och nu utvecklat sitt kunnande inom fighting.
“The biggest difference now is that I have increased my experience and I understand more about the fighting game. My biggest change would be not to underestimate Stipe as I did before. The difference would be how to prepare to fight and then how to [condition] my body in training camp as a challenger. How to set up everything compared to the first time.
“Once again, the first time was a mess. I didn’t know what I was doing there. It helped me to understand a lot of things. It helped me to learn. It helped to understand a lot of things. To know how things work.”
