The world will be on tenterhooks when the much-anticipated rematch between Francis Ngannou and Stipe Miocic, gets underway on Saturday, this week. The baddest man on the planet, Stipe Miocic will be defending his heavyweight belt, come 27th of March, against probably the most dangerous heavyweight of all time – ‘Francis ‘The Predator’ Ngannou. Stipe Miocic, despite starting the fight at UFC 220 against Ngannou, as the underdog, emerged victorious via. unanimous decision.
Speaking in an interview with ESPN, Stipe Miocic was asked by Stephen A. Smith if he has changed his game plan, going into this rematch. The champ was quick to acknowledge the fact that the game evolves constantly, and so should the game plan, before going on to denote how much Francis Ngannou has improved since January 2018.
‘We’ve both evolved since our last fight‘ – Stipe Miocic
Miocic was quoted as saying, “I’m definitely gonna do something different. Different game plan, just because, in this sport you have to evolve, if you don’t evolve you’re gonna get passed by. And he’s [Francis Ngannou] definitely working on everything, he’s working on striking of course, but he’s working on his ground game, his defense, his wrestling, he’s doing all that. We’ve both evolved since our last fight. He’s got a lot better, but so have I.” [H/T FirstSportz]
If Francis has improved monumentally since his first fight against Miocic, so has Miocic. Miocic has just faced Daniel Cormier since UFC 220, but in a trilogy bout, beating him twice. And there is no denying the fact that Daniel Cormier is much better than all the opponents Francis Ngannou has faced since UFC 220 (notably Cain Velasquez, Derrick Lewis, Curtis Blaydes).
Who do you think has the edge?
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