Francis Ngannou believes he’d have an easier time in a rematch with Stipe Miocic than he would in a potential fight against Daniel Cormier.
Yet, for Ngannou, he just hopes he can fight one of them soon as he says the UFC needs to make the heavyweight division active.
Miocic has not fought since he TKO’d Daniel Cormier at UFC 241 to reclaim his heavyweight title. Since then, however, he has been healing an eye injury and has now said he won’t fight during the pandemic, as he is focusing on his other job of being a firefighter. For Ngannou, he says the promotion needs to do something to keep the heavyweight division going.
“I think the UFC needs to do something and make a title fight happen. I don’t know when the pandemic will end. No disrespect to Stipe because he’s a well-deserved champion but the division needs to move on,” Ngannou said to BJPENN.com. “The division can’t be held down any longer. Whatever it takes, and whatever the UFC has to do to make the division move on has to be done. It’s almost been a year since the last title fight and who knows when the next title fight will happen.”
If the UFC does strip Miocic, Ngannou knows he would be fighting Daniel Cormier for the vacant belt. For the heavyweight contender, he says it would be an honor to share the Octagon with “DC” but is confident he would get his hand raised.
“First of all, I would be very happy to fight Cormier. He needs to the trilogy with Stipe as his retirement fight so there was no point of me calling him out,” he said. “But, he came out himself and said he would do the fight with me. It would be an honor for me to fight him. I see myself walking out with my hand raised.”
If the UFC does force Miocic to defend his belt against Cormier, Ngannou will be on the sidelines waiting. It seems unlikely the Jon Jones fight will happen which frustrates Ngannou.
But, if he does have to wait and gets a rematch against Miocic, Ngannou knows he has what it takes to beat him. He also believes that it’s an easier fight than the Cormier scrap.
“Honestly, I am more confident in a rematch against Stipe than I am to fight Cormier. I think Cormier is a bigger challenge for me than Stipe,” he explained. “I’ve been in there with Stipe and he couldn’t finish me. If that was DC he would’ve finished me. I was done, I couldn’t move and Stipe still couldn’t finish me. I think if I fight Stipe again, I’ll have more knowledge and how to beat him.”
For now, Francis Ngannou hopes a heavyweight title fight happens very soon with or without Miocic.
Do you agree with Francis Ngannou that he would have an easier time with Stipe Miocic than he would against Daniel Cormier?
This article first appeared on BJPENN.com on 5/22/2020