AND NEW!!! Francis Ngannou becomes the third champion hailing from Africa; joining Kamaru Usman (Nigeria) and Israel Adesanya (Nigeria). Francis Ngannou (Cameroon) wins the UFC Heavy weight Title vs Stipe Miocic in epic proportions and shakes up the Heavyweight Division. The Cameroonian native by way of France won the title by KO over who most consider the greatest Heavyweight of all time. Most pundits, experts or armchair analysts said the same thing (including me)… “If Ngannou wins he will win by KO. If the fight goes to the championship rounds then Stipe will retain the title”. Everyone said the same thing and that’s exactly what happened.
What does this mean for the Heavyweight Division? Well, it means that Jon Jones will tweet a lot about how he wants to fight and that Uncle Dana isn’t paying him enough, then he’ll retire, then delete all the tweets and eventually come back to square one asking for more money. All the respect in the world goes to Jon Jones, and nobody should ever accept any amount of money that they feel isn’t equal to their value. Jones asking for more money isn’t the issue. The issue is that we have an opportunity to see the best fighter of all time versus the most dangerous fighter of all time at the Heavyweight Division. Remember when the Heavyweight Boxing class was at it’s peak? Unbeatable! Unfortunately, the boxing Heavyweights of today like to pad their stats and make fans wait for fights. The UFC has an obligation to the fighting world to put this fight on no matter what the dollar value is. Do it and reap the benefits.
Jon Jones is a disgruntled employee at this point and Dana White doesn’t seem to care in the slightest. Dana is sitting comfortably in his chair knowing that Ngannou is the one that moves the needle between Jones and Ngannou. Uncle Dana can give Derrick Lewis the fight and won’t lose a penny. Lewis would love to fight for the opportunity at Ngannou and the strap. Ngannou is an active fighter and wants to prove that. Even in his Post Fight Press Conference, Ngannou says that Stipe is still the best fighter of all time in the Heavyweight Division.
All we know at this point is that Jones wants the fight but not at his current contract, Ngannou just wants to fight whoever and whenever, Lewis is ready to go and Dana holds all the cards. Maybe we see this fight in Africa! I’m sure a soccer stadium in Capetown or Johannesburg is very doable and can fill almost 100k in attendance.
Take a look at our Interview with Aiemann Zahabi where we break down his KO victory vs Drako Rodriguez.