{"id":270666,"date":"2018-02-21T08:15:35","date_gmt":"2018-02-21T16:15:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/?p=270666"},"modified":"2018-02-21T08:15:35","modified_gmt":"2018-02-21T16:15:35","slug":"ufc-begins-hinting-francis-ngannou-vs-derrick-lewis-matchup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/francis-ngannou\/ufc-begins-hinting-francis-ngannou-vs-derrick-lewis-matchup\/","title":{"rendered":"UFC begins hinting at Francis Ngannou vs. Derrick Lewis matchup"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In the wake of Derrick Lewis&#8217; latest thunderous knockout win, which <a href=\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc-fight-night-austin\/ufc-fight-night-austin-results-derrick-lewis-vs-marcin-tybura\/\">came against a gritty Marcin Tybura<\/a>, fans immediately began clamoring for a matchup between him and fellow knockout artist Francis Ngannou.<\/p>\n<p>From the looks of it, the UFC has been listening.<\/p>\n<p>On Tuesday evening, the promotion posted on its official Twitter account, asking fans a very interesting series of seemingly rhetorical questions about this fight:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">RT &#8211; if you want to see this fight next<\/p>\n<p>FAV &#8211; if you want to see this fight next<\/p>\n<p>COMMENT any letter, word, phrase, digit or symbol &#8211; if you want to see this fight next. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/UhO6HiAZyJ\">pic.twitter.com\/UhO6HiAZyJ<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 UFC (@ufc) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ufc\/status\/966145809338150913?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">February 21, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>If you wondering how fans responded to this Tweet from the UFC, they&#8217;ve answered with more than 3,100 Retweets, almost 10,500 likes, and over 500 comments thus far. Needless to say, the collective answer sounds like a decisive &#8220;yes&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Nothing is official just yet, of course, as the dust has barely settled since Lewis&#8217; last win.<\/p>\n<p>With his massive win over Marcin Tybura, Derrick Lewis rebounded from a tough loss to heavyweight legend Mark Hunt. This loss was preceded by six-straight wins over names like Gabriel Gonzaga, Roy Nelson,\u00a0Shamil Abdurakhimov and Travis Browne. Lewis is now 19-5 overall.<\/p>\n<p>Francis Ngannou, on the other hand, owns an impressive overall record of 11-2. In his last fight, he came up short in a heavyweight title bid against reigning champion Stipe Miocic. This decision loss to Miocic was preceded by a 6-0 start to his Octagon career: stoppage wins over Luis Henrique, Curtis Blaydes,\u00a0Bojan Mihajlovi\u0107, Anthony Hamilton, Andrei Arlovski and Alistair Overeem.<\/p>\n<p>Who do you think comes out on top in a heavyweight slugfest between Derrick Lewis and Francis Ngannou? If this fight happens, which card would you like to see it land on? Join the conversation in the comments section.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><i>This article first appeared on\u00a0<\/i><a href=\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/\"><span class=\"s1\"><i>BJPenn.com<\/i><\/span><\/a><i>\u00a0on 2\/21\/2018.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the wake of Derrick Lewis&#8217; latest thunderous knockout win, which came against a gritty Marcin Tybura, fans immediately began clamoring for a matchup between him and fellow knockout artist Francis Ngannou. From the looks of it, the UFC has been listening. On Tuesday evening, the promotion posted on its official Twitter account, asking fans [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54430,"featured_media":267944,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[10239,10646],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v19.7 (Yoast SEO v19.14) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>UFC begins hinting at Francis Ngannou vs. Derrick Lewis matchup | BJPenn.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/francis-ngannou\/ufc-begins-hinting-francis-ngannou-vs-derrick-lewis-matchup\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"UFC begins hinting at Francis Ngannou vs. Derrick Lewis matchup | BJPenn.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In the wake of Derrick Lewis&#8217; latest thunderous knockout win, which came against a gritty Marcin Tybura, fans immediately began clamoring for a matchup between him and fellow knockout artist Francis Ngannou. From the looks of it, the UFC has been listening. On Tuesday evening, the promotion posted on its official Twitter account, asking fans [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/francis-ngannou\/ufc-begins-hinting-francis-ngannou-vs-derrick-lewis-matchup\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"| BJPenn.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bjpenn\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-02-21T16:15:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Francis-Ngannou.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"730\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"380\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Tom Taylor\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@bjpenndotcom\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@bjpenndotcom\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Tom Taylor\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/francis-ngannou\/ufc-begins-hinting-francis-ngannou-vs-derrick-lewis-matchup\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/francis-ngannou\/ufc-begins-hinting-francis-ngannou-vs-derrick-lewis-matchup\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Tom Taylor\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/person\/e1a3f1e5a045aeaf5b59aa1549a06a87\"},\"headline\":\"UFC begins hinting at Francis Ngannou vs. Derrick Lewis matchup\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-02-21T16:15:35+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-02-21T16:15:35+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/francis-ngannou\/ufc-begins-hinting-francis-ngannou-vs-derrick-lewis-matchup\/\"},\"wordCount\":326,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Derrick Lewis\",\"Francis Ngannou\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"copyrightYear\":\"2018\",\"copyrightHolder\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/francis-ngannou\/ufc-begins-hinting-francis-ngannou-vs-derrick-lewis-matchup\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/francis-ngannou\/ufc-begins-hinting-francis-ngannou-vs-derrick-lewis-matchup\/\",\"name\":\"UFC begins hinting at Francis Ngannou vs. Derrick Lewis matchup | BJPenn.com\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2018-02-21T16:15:35+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-02-21T16:15:35+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/francis-ngannou\/ufc-begins-hinting-francis-ngannou-vs-derrick-lewis-matchup\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/francis-ngannou\/ufc-begins-hinting-francis-ngannou-vs-derrick-lewis-matchup\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/francis-ngannou\/ufc-begins-hinting-francis-ngannou-vs-derrick-lewis-matchup\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"MMA News\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Francis Ngannou\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/francis-ngannou\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":4,\"name\":\"UFC begins hinting at Francis Ngannou vs. Derrick Lewis matchup\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/\",\"name\":\"| BJPenn.com\",\"description\":\"MMA &amp; 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