Francis Ngannou’s frustration is mounting

Heavyweight division in the MMA promotions consist mainly of power strikers. No surprise this division has the highest knockout ratio compared to the other lighter categories. Earlier this year, Francis Ngannou (15-3-0) knocked Jairzinho Rozenstruik (11-1-0) out in just 20 seconds to become the Number 1 contender in the UFC Heavyweight Division. However, until today, there are no news about a potential fight between Stipe Miocic, who earned a unanimous decision against Daniel Cormier (22-3-1 NC) in August, and Francis Ngannou.

Francis “The Predator” Ngannou’s recent dominance in the heavyweight division is clear and he was hoping to get a title bout against Stipe Miocic (20-3-0), current UFC Heavyweight World Champion, later on this year. However, his frustration is massively growing after finding out that Stipe Miocic will not be ready to fight for few months. Therefore, Francis Ngannou will have to wait for at least the first quarter of 2021 before trying to dethrone Miocic in the octagon.

The source of the frustration of the 34-year-old Cameroonian knockout artist comes from the fact that the last three title shots have been always between Daniel Cormier and Stipe Miocic. Since 2018, in fact, the two American fighters locked horns in 3 consecutive fights, once a year. The latest one occurred last August when Stipe Miocic successfully defended against Daniel Cormier his title of UFC Heavyweight World Champion won the year before against, of course, Cormier.

We all know that UFC President, Dana White, is a peculiar character with a lot of feelings for few fighters, including Stipe Miocic and Daniel Cormier. In addition, the UFC is an American promotion which operates worldwide, but mainly active in the US. Therefore, it would be easier for the MMA promotion to protect American fighters who can massively attract much more people, and money, to MMA events than a Cameroonian fighter. For sake of information, we also need to mention that, before the Miocic-Cormier saga, Francis Ngannou had missed his chance to become World Champion losing by unanimous decision in 2018 against Stipe Miocic.
We frankly think that Francis Ngannou’s view is correct. Having one title shot per year and no mandatory rules, like in boxing for example, makes UFC look ridiculous. It seems that we are not the only ones to think in this way. According to Francis Ngannou, other fighters in the roster think the rules need to be clarified and be equal for all the fighters.

If a fighter does not get a title shot, his efforts are meaningless, and he is fighting without any purpose. The example of Ngannou is clear: after missing his chance against Miocic in 2018, Ngannou has recovered positions in the ranking winning 4 fights in a row in less than 2 minutes and 42 seconds in aggregate (each fight has been won in the first seconds of the first round). After winning against Jairzinho Rozenstruik, there are no rivals left other than Miocic for the title shot. But after sitting idle for more than 7 months, it seems that the UFC is not willing yet to set up the fight.