UFC 220, Stipe Miocic, Francis Ngannou and a whole bunch of knockouts
Stipe Miocic, top, punches Alistair Overeem during a heavyweight title bout at UFC 203 on Saturday, Sept. 10, 2016, in Cleveland. Credit: AP / David Dermer
Both Stipe Miocic and Francis Ngannou spent the better part of the past two years temporarily changing the consciousness of their opponents.
They’ll meet one another in the octagon on Saturday at UFC 220 with winning streaks, knockout streaks and the heavyweight championship at stake.
Miocic (17-2), the reigning UFC heavyweight champion, brings a five-fight winning streak into Saturday’s main event on pay-per-view in Boston. All ended in knockouts. The last four ended in first-round knockouts.
A look at Miocic’s recent KO list:
Mark Hunt, Round 5, 2:47
Andrei Arlovski, Round 1, 0:54
Fabricio Werdum, Round 1, 2:47
Alistair Overeem, Round 1, 4:27
Junior dos Santos, Round 1, 2:22
“I think it was more of those guys running into my fist and then falling,” Miocic said on a conference call last week. “Honestly, I really don’t care whether he has the power or not. He does have power, you know, good for him. I mean as he should. He’s a heavyweight.”
Ngannou (11-1) blasted people into an altered state in five of his six UFC fights as he climbed from prospect to No. 1 contender in the heavyweight division.
A look at Ngannou’s recent KO list:
Luis Henrique, Round 2, 2:53
Curtis Blaydes, Round 2, 5:00 (doctor’s stoppage)
Bojan Mihajlovic, Round 1, 1:34
Andrei Arlovski, Round 1, 1:32
Alistair Overeem, Round 1, 1:42
He also snuck in a first-round submission over Anthony Hamilton.
“I’m the guy that’s going to change the heavyweight division,” Ngannou said. “It starts on January 20th, and bring more excitement for the heavyweight division which was for a long time almost forgot about.”
“I know what Stipe is able to do, almost everyone knows what Stipe is albe to do. But the scary thing is this, no one doesn’t know really what I’m able to do. They just see it go for like one minute and then I win the fight. But they really don’t have the idea for what I can do.”
Mark La Monica is a deputy sports editor at Newsday. He also covers mixed martial arts.
More MMA
