Francis Ngannou is going to implement a lesson learned from his loss at UFC 220 to Stipe Miocic to better prepare for his upcoming bout against Derrick Lewis at UFC 226.
Miocic dominated Ngannou during their title fight earlier this year. Stipe weathered Francis Ngannou’s storm and neutralized his wrestling to control the fight and score a five-round decision win.
Ngannou spoke with MMAFighting recently where he discussed his last outing against Miocic and admitted this defeat helped him becoming a better fight now.
“I collected a lot of experience and I learned a lot from that fight,” Ngannou told Helen Yee recently. “This is something that would have happened anyway someday because my rise was very fast, so I jumped a lot of things. I didn’t discover somethings that would catch me later. At some point I can even say it’s the best thing that happened because if it didn’t happen in that fight, it might happen in the future. Now it happened this time. We take it, we learn it, we stand up, we move forward. That’s how life is.”
Ngannou is facing Derrick Lewis in a highly anticipated bout that culminates months of beef between the two big men. “The Black Beast” is also made a name for himself as a knockout artist inside the Octagon is coming off a third-round knockout win over Marcin Tybura at UFC Fight Night 126 this past February. Lewis feels he has an advantage over Cameroonian ahead of their fight. No doubt ‘The Black Beast’ and Ngannou are two of the most feared punchers in the MMA sport. Both heavyweight own a long highlight reel of concussions caused by their handiwork. However, Ngannou doesn’t care what he says because “The Predator” believes he is better than him in everything.
“What advantages do you think I have over Derrick Lewis? All of them,” Ngannou said. “Of what you can imagine, I think I have all that over him. He said I knocked [Andrei] Arlovski out because he’s old — he was 37. Mark Hunt was 43 when he beat [Derrick Lewis]. Hunt made him quit. I think [Lewis] just doesn’t know what he’s saying.”
“I would just get my conditioning on point. What I’ve got already will be okay.”
Do you think Ngannou will knock-out Lewis at UFC 226?
