Brendan Schaub believes that Junior dos Santos showed hesitation in his bout with Francis Ngannou.
In the main event of UFC Minneapolis this past Saturday night (June 29), dos Santos collided with Ngannou. “Cigano” was going for his fourth win in a row. It didn’t pan out for him as Ngannou scored a first-round TKO victory.
On a new edition of his “Below The Belt” podcast, Brendan Schaub spoke on how Ngannou’s power forced Junior dos Santos to be uncomfortable:
“Told you guys first-round TKO. I didn’t think he was gonna knock him out, but I thought he’d wobble him and finish him with punches on the ground. You don’t realize how f*cking hard Francis hits. A lot of those they weren’t like flush. The only flush one, and it was weird how Junior dos Santos turned his back. It’s like, what the f*ck are you doing dude? And then boom behind the ear which, it’s a transition, that’s a legal blow, boom behind the ear and then JDS is like ‘what?’ And then [the followup punch]. That was the flush one, then he went face down.
“That was the first time dos Santos looked a little hesitant. That should show you how scary Francis is cause dos Santos was like scared to get hit. You could tell he was like, ‘oh f*ck dude.’”
Ngannou has made it clear that he wants another title opportunity. UFC president Dana White isn’t committing to it. As for dos Santos, he plans to rebuild after having his three-fight winning streak snapped.
Was Junior dos Santos hesitant in his fight with Francis Ngannou? Is Brendan Schaub correct? Sound off in the comments.
This article first appeared on BJPENN.COM on 7/2/2019.