UFC 260 was the weakest Pay Per View card that we have seen yet in 2021. It was banked entirely on the Ngannou and Miocic fight and that panned out kind of exactly the way that everyone thought it was going to. Miocic didn't even look like a heavyweight in this bout and when standing next to the giant from Camaroon, it looked like it was only a matter of time before this was going to result in "lights out" for Stipe and that is exactly what happened.
I knew it was game over when Stipe went for a takedown, which was previously Francis' Achilles heel, only to have it stuffed with expert precision.
Stipe only had one takedown attempt and it was such a failure that Ngannou actually turned it around on him briefly but then let him go. We all know that people can't withstand a punch from Francis (or really any other top heavyweight) so it kind of baffled me that Stipe didn't try more takedowns since that was really the main reason why he beat him the first time.
Instead, we saw a strategy that appeared to be Stipe attempting to force Ngannou to gas out because the big man has been known to do that relatively early on in many of his battles, including his last one against the now ex-champ.
Stipe tried to box with a guy that everyone knows has deadly one-punch power and while he did a good job keeping a distance, I feel as though he was pumping the brakes entirely too much in the hopes that Francis would go wild ... which he never did. You really have to admire his coaching staff for helping him to change his ways.
I realize it is really easy for me to be an "armchair quarterback" here but Stipe barely engaged at all in the first round. I wonder if his terrible result on the first takedown attempt kind of shocked him because Ngannou surprised everyone including me and all the announcers with how handily he deflected and even turned it around.
Later, on a jab, which is a very rare way to rattle an opponent even at heavyweight, Stipe was clearly stunned, but then got a strike of his own in as he backpedaled and this perhaps gave him an idea that he was going to rally with counterstrikes and left himself very open to another hit. Which is exactly what happened as Stipe took a hit that will ensure that he is on the bad end of a highlight reel for the rest of his career.
Herb jumped into action at this point and Francis only got one hammer fist in before he was pulled away. This was no TKO, this was a 'nite nite time "proper KO the likes of which we rarely see in MMA. It was devastating and probably one of the gnarliest (is that a word?) KO's I have ever seen in my years of being a fan of the sport.
Here is one thing I really liked about this fight: Both Stipe and Francis are probably in a tie for the nicest people in UFC. Nary a trash-talking word was said in the leadup to this bout and afterwards both men had nothing but accolades for the other. In that sense, I am happy that Ngannou is the person that took the strap from Miocic.
Is Francis the best in the world? Well the belt around his waist certainly suggests that this is the case but I think we are yet to see what this man is truly capable of since his past consists of either KO'ing someone early, or losing in the long run. Has his cardio improved? We don't really know but when he was taken the distance by both Miocec and Derrick Lewis, he lost by decision. He has a 3rd loss in there somewhere, but the UFC is just terrible at keeping their stats and I keep finding more and more mistakes the more I dig. I'm gonna poke fun at them for this
Here we are, more than 30 hours after the fight and the official website of the most popular fighting sport in the world is yet to be updated.
I think the strategy of Stipe was to force Ngannou to go the distance like he did the first time and honestly this was stupid. Did he really think that Francis' team wasn't going to focus very heavily on takedown defense realizing that this is a very strong point of Miocic's offense? He played it a little too safe in my opinion and generated very little in the way of offense in the first round. Just 52 seconds into the 2nd round would end it all in brutal fashion.
Don't get the wrong idea here, I am not taking anything away from Francis and I genuinely like the guy and based on his performance against the top people in the heavyweight division, I think there is a chance that he could be there for a while.
However, I do think that Stipe's strategy was a bad one coming into this and his fitness didn't look all that great either as he didn't even look like a heavyweight. Will he remain a factor in the division? Will he retire? At the age of 38 it seems like that could be a very real possibility as Dana White is notorious for putting older guys out to pasture once he has used them up. I don't know who they would pit him up against next to be honest since he hasn't fought anyone other than Ngannou and Daniel Cormier since 2017. Maybe Ciryl Gane? Dana White really seems to be pushing for that guy even though his last fight was terrible ...
So what do you think?