{"id":272857,"date":"2018-03-20T09:46:02","date_gmt":"2018-03-20T16:46:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/?p=272857"},"modified":"2018-03-20T09:46:40","modified_gmt":"2018-03-20T16:46:40","slug":"francis-ngannou-has-an-interesting-reason-for-calling-out-brock-lesnar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/francis-ngannou\/francis-ngannou-has-an-interesting-reason-for-calling-out-brock-lesnar\/","title":{"rendered":"Francis Ngannou has an interesting reason for calling out Brock Lesnar"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>On Monday&#8217;s edition of The MMA Hour, Francis Ngannou <a href=\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/francis-ngannou\/francis-ngannou-begs-brock-lesnar-to-return-to-the-ufc-give-me-that-fking-fight\/\">re-upped on his previous calls for a fight with former UFC heavyweight champion and current WWE star Brock Lesnar<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p id=\"O2FiLq\">\u201cPlease Brock, come back, come back my friend. We need you here,\u201d Ngannou said (h\/t\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmafighting.com\/2018\/3\/19\/17139844\/francis-ngannou-implores-brock-lesnar-to-return-to-ufc-give-me-that-f-king-fight\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">MMAFighting<\/a>). \u201cWe need you to put the fun in this division. I need you to give me that f*cking fight I\u2019ve been waiting for for a long time, I\u2019ve been dreaming for [it].\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In a subsequent chat with <a href=\"http:\/\/mmajunkie.com\/2018\/03\/ufc-francis-ngannou-explains-brock-lesnar-callout-proving-critics-wrong\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">MMA Junkie<\/a>, Ngannou explained the reason for this callout. At a glance, it might look like he&#8217;s trying to maximize his potential payday by fighting the biggest possible name, but he&#8217;s really just keen to prove that he can wrestle, after being soundly outwrestled by Stipe Miocic in his failed UFC 220 heavyweight title bid. He&#8217;s looking for a way to silence his doubters.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t think my problem is wrestling,\u201d Ngannou said. \u201cI can\u2019t believe my wrestling is bad. I think my wrestling defense is good. I think I can prove it, and maybe not in this fight, but I have had a very good strategy of wrestling defense for my previous fight. I can show that Brock won\u2019t hurt me to show that my wrestling defense is not bad.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While Ngannou is keen to erase doubts about his wrestling by thwarting the bulldozer-like takedowns of Lesnar, however, he will accept another fight if this dream matchup isn&#8217;t doable.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf they tell me, you have to take <a href=\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/derrick-lewis\/derrick-lewis-fires-back-at-francis-ngannou-its-about-time\/\">Derrick [Lewis]<\/a>, I\u2019m going to take Derrick,\u201d Ngannou said. \u201cI\u2019m not just going to take everyone and say, \u2018OK, let\u2019s fight this one for nothing.\u2019 I want a plan. It doesn\u2019t matter who it is. If the UFC says that Derrick will be that one (that gets me a title shot),\u00a0I\u2019ll fight Derrick. I don\u2019t have a problem to fight anyone else. I just want to keep looking forward.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRight now, I have a goal,\u201d Ngannou said elsewhere in this interview. \u201cI\u2019m the No. 1 contender. I just lost a title shot, and my goal now is to come back to the title shot. So everything that I set up is to get the title shot.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Who do you want to see Francis Ngannou fight next?<\/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 3\/20\/2018.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On Monday&#8217;s edition of The MMA Hour, Francis Ngannou re-upped on his previous calls for a fight with former UFC heavyweight champion and current WWE star Brock Lesnar. \u201cPlease Brock, come back, come back my friend. We need you here,\u201d Ngannou said (h\/t\u00a0MMAFighting). \u201cWe need you to put the fun in this division. I need [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54430,"featured_media":272713,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[10199,10646],"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>Francis Ngannou has an interesting reason for calling out Brock Lesnar | 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\/francis-ngannou-has-an-interesting-reason-for-calling-out-brock-lesnar\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Francis Ngannou has an interesting reason for calling out Brock Lesnar | BJPenn.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"On Monday&#8217;s edition of The MMA Hour, Francis Ngannou re-upped on his previous calls for a fight with former UFC heavyweight champion and current WWE star Brock Lesnar. \u201cPlease Brock, come back, come back my friend. We need you here,\u201d Ngannou said (h\/t\u00a0MMAFighting). \u201cWe need you to put the fun in this division. I need [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/francis-ngannou\/francis-ngannou-has-an-interesting-reason-for-calling-out-brock-lesnar\/\" \/>\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=\"2018-03-20T16:46:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-03-20T16:46:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/Francis-Ngannou-1.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"696\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"399\" \/>\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\/francis-ngannou-has-an-interesting-reason-for-calling-out-brock-lesnar\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/francis-ngannou\/francis-ngannou-has-an-interesting-reason-for-calling-out-brock-lesnar\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Tom Taylor\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/person\/e1a3f1e5a045aeaf5b59aa1549a06a87\"},\"headline\":\"Francis Ngannou has an interesting reason for calling out Brock Lesnar\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-03-20T16:46:02+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-03-20T16:46:40+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/francis-ngannou\/francis-ngannou-has-an-interesting-reason-for-calling-out-brock-lesnar\/\"},\"wordCount\":407,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Brock Lesnar\",\"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\/francis-ngannou-has-an-interesting-reason-for-calling-out-brock-lesnar\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/francis-ngannou\/francis-ngannou-has-an-interesting-reason-for-calling-out-brock-lesnar\/\",\"name\":\"Francis Ngannou has an interesting reason for calling out Brock Lesnar | BJPenn.com\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2018-03-20T16:46:02+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-03-20T16:46:40+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/francis-ngannou\/francis-ngannou-has-an-interesting-reason-for-calling-out-brock-lesnar\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/francis-ngannou\/francis-ngannou-has-an-interesting-reason-for-calling-out-brock-lesnar\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/francis-ngannou\/francis-ngannou-has-an-interesting-reason-for-calling-out-brock-lesnar\/#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\":\"Francis Ngannou has an interesting reason for calling out Brock Lesnar\"}]},{\"@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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