“He wants to get in and get out”- Curtis Blaydes on whether Francis Ngannou has done enough to be the heavyweight GOAT

“He wants to get in and get out”- Curtis Blaydes on whether Francis Ngannou has done enough to be the heavyweight GOAT

Curtis Blaydes and Francis Ngannou

Curtis Blaydes does not believe a victory over Stipe Miocic or a win against Ciryl Gane would make Francis Ngannou the HW GOAT. Blaydes ranks Miocic and Cain Velasquez above Ngannou. Blaydes does not see Ngannou fighting for five rounds and winning the fight.

Blaydes believes that the way Ngannou lost his fights makes his case weak for the GOAT conversations at HW. He lost multiple rounds and got completed dominated against Stipe Miocic in their first fight and that alone makes Miocic the better fighter out of two of them. Blaydes weighs a technical performance over the course of five rounds to be more impressive than a flash knockout.

Stipe Miocic and Cain Velasquez
Stipe Miocic and Cain Velasquez

When asked if the win over Gane would make Ngannou the greatest heavyweight ever. Blaydes said, “No, that still goes to Stipe, and then even if you don’t want to give it to Stipe, I give it to Velasquez. Ngannou has not done enough in my opinion to be greatest HW.“

Blaydes had a pretty solid reason for this. He said, “He’s very very good but when we are talking the goat you have to start nitpick and I’m a nitpick. He’s lost rounds, he got owned. When he fought Stipe the first time, it wasn’t a good look. He got owned. I’ve never seen, even when Stipe lost he never got owned. He got knocked out by Ngannou but at HW anyone could get knocked out. I’m a lot more impressed by decisions.”

Related Article – Ciryl Gane will dethrone the champion, Bon Gamin huge favorite to beat The Predator at UFC 270

Curtis Blaydes favors Ciryl Gane if he can get Francis Ngannou out of third round

Ciryl Gane and Francis Ngannou
Ciryl Gane and Francis Ngannou

Curtis Blaydes suggested that Ngannou has a good chance of winning the fight by knockout but heavyweights get knocked out all the time. Blaydes stated that Ngannou does not have enough skillset to complete over five rounds with Gane. Whereas Gane has already proved that he can go five rounds and still be there as he was at the start of the fight.

Blaydes thinks that Ngannou does not want to go through five rounds and probably doesn’t even train like that. Blaydes predict that if the fight goes out of the third round, Gane would have his hand raised. He said,

“I know that’s weird to say, the unanimous decision is more impressive than a knockout but at heavyweight, anybody can get knockout and that’s what heavyweight do. But to skillfully beat a guy for five rounds that’s very impressive and I’ve yet to see Ngannou do that. He has had to do that yet but I don’t think he has that ability. I don’t think he wants to be in the octagon for five rounds.

I think he knows that’s not how he wins and I don’t think he spars like that, he doesn’t train like that. He wants to get in and get out and I think that’s a double edge blade. Sometimes it works out to go on there with that mindset and other times it doesn’t. And I think in this next matchup against Gane, Gane’s gonna be prepared to go five rounds. He looks like he has the condition, well no, he’s already proven he has the conditioning to bounce around the way he bounces around for five rounds. I think if it gets out of the third, I think it’s over for Ngannou”

https://youtube.com/watch?v=WA0m6qYq41Q

Also Read – Michael Bisping lifts the lid on his picks for Top-5 heavyweights of all time in the UFC