Stipe Miocic expects to “extinguish” Francis Ngannou again at UFC 260

By Cole Shelton - March 25, 2021

Stipe Miocic is confident he will defend his heavyweight title again on Saturday night.

Stipe Miocic, Francis Ngannou

In the main event of UFC 260, Miocic and Ngannou are set to rematch three years after Miocic dominated the first fight. In January of 2018, Ngannou was young and inexperienced and after the first round, he gassed himself out and Miocic used his wrestling to win the fight. Now, ahead of the rematch, Miocic expects to extinguish Ngannou again.

“Nothing has changed, he has shown promised, he has gotten better, he has great coaches and teammates,” Miocic said at the UFC 260 press conference. “He has evolved you can tell, I’m here to extinguish him again.”

Through entire fight camp, Miocic has been extremely confident he will get his hand raised. He believes his style is a bad matchup for Ngannou and is confident he will use his wrestling to control the fight.

“Francis has gotten a lot better since the first fight with me, but styles make matchup, and unfortunately, the style I have is not good for him,” Miocic said on UFC Countdown. “I’m walking out And Still.”

However, Ngannou appears to be much better this time around and has four-straight KO wins. Yet, his takedown defense have not been tested, nor has his cardio since he lost to Miocic at UFC 220. There are some big questions that will be answered on Saturday night, but the champ expects Ngannou’s improvements to not be enough.

Stipe Miocic is coming off his trilogy fights with Daniel Cormier, where he won the final two fights to reclaim and defend his belt. The Cleveland native also holds notable wins over Alistair Overeem, Junior dos Santos, and Fabricio Werdum. He is also the UFC record holder for most consecutive heavyweight title defenses.

Who do you think will win, Stipe Miocic or Francis Ngannou at UFC 260?