{"id":370361,"date":"2020-12-07T08:24:24","date_gmt":"2020-12-07T16:24:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/?p=370361"},"modified":"2020-12-07T08:24:24","modified_gmt":"2020-12-07T16:24:24","slug":"francis-ngannou-stipe-miocic-has-been-holding-the-heavyweight-division-up-for-a-long-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/francis-ngannou-stipe-miocic-has-been-holding-the-heavyweight-division-up-for-a-long-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Francis Ngannou: Stipe Miocic “has been holding the heavyweight division up for a long time”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Top UFC heavyweight contender Francis Ngannou is getting frustrated<\/a> with the inactivity of the division’s reigning champion Stipe Miocic.<\/p>\n

After rattling off consecutive knockout victories over Curtis Blaydes, Cain Velasquez, Junior dos Santos and Jairzinho Rozenstruik, Ngannou has irrefutably earned a second crack at Miocic, who he lost a decision to in 2018.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately for the streaking contender, Miocic has spent the years since their first fight tied up with a three-fight series with the division’s former champion, Daniel Cormier.<\/p>\n

While UFC President Dana White recently laid out loose plans to book a rematch between Miocic and Ngannou in March, the latter is getting tired of waiting.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a lifetime [since I last fought],\u201d Ngannou told MMA Fighting<\/a>. \u201cIt\u2019s still kind of like frustrating even though I\u2019m trying to take it out of my mind knowing that I can\u2019t do nothing to change it. Even before fighting [Rozenstruik] in May, I\u2019ve been through this same story, this same situation and it got me ready to face it again. I was waiting for Stipe and D.C., who was in August and obviously I was expecting something in December. That\u2019s why after their fight, I just came back from Cameroon expecting maybe sometime in December because it\u2019s four months away, or maybe January at the latest, I might have a fight.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, now I don\u2019t know. What I know, they just said March but it\u2019s not official. Who knows. Who knows how that will play out.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy only thing with that trilogy is that [Stipe] has been holding the heavyweight division up for a long time,\u201d Ngannou continued. \u201cThere hasn\u2019t been a title fight in this division for two years except for those between Stipe and D.C. and other than that there hasn\u2019t been a fight with contenders, which is what contenders fight for. To fight for the title but there is no title going on in this division. I don\u2019t how long that is going to last. I\u2019m sure it\u2019s not just me saying that. Other contenders who also feel the same way because if there\u2019s not a title fight, contenders they\u2019re not moving on. They\u2019re just fighting without purpose. Without a real goal.”<\/p>\n

While Ngannou is clearly growing frustrated of waiting for Miocic, he seems to take solace in the fact that, at the end, of the day, the UFC will decide when the heavyweight title fight goes down\u2014not the champ.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the end of the day, Stipe doesn\u2019t decide much,\u201d Ngannou said. \u201cI think the UFC is in charge of things. That\u2019s why my last fight, we requested that to be an interim [title] fight so we can fight for something and if that would have been for an interim fight, I\u2019m sure I would be fighting by now.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, Stipe on his end wants to do things his way, which is what everyone wants to do. But it\u2019s not for him to regulate the situation in the division. It\u2019s not his duty.\u201d<\/p>\n

Do you understand the frustrations of Francis Ngannou?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Top UFC heavyweight contender Francis Ngannou is getting frustrated with the inactivity of the division’s reigning champion Stipe Miocic. After rattling off consecutive knockout victories over Curtis Blaydes, Cain Velasquez, Junior dos Santos and Jairzinho Rozenstruik, Ngannou has irrefutably earned a second crack at Miocic, who he lost a decision to in 2018. Unfortunately for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54430,"featured_media":358819,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[10646,39610],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nFrancis Ngannou: Stipe Miocic "has been holding the heavyweight division up for a long time" | BJPenn.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Top UFC heavyweight contender Francis Ngannou is getting frustrated with the inactivity of the division's reigning champion Stipe Miocic.\u00a0\" \/>\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\/ufc\/francis-ngannou-stipe-miocic-has-been-holding-the-heavyweight-division-up-for-a-long-time\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta 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