Francis Ngannou On UFC 220 Defeat: I ‘Underestimated’ Stipe Miocic, Vows To ‘Come Back Stronger.’

Francis Ngannou, a surging heavyweight contender is bitterly disappointed to have come up short in his first UFC title bout.

The Cameroonian-born Frenchman Ngannou challenged Stipe Miocic for the UFC heavyweight title at UFC 220, which took place at the TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts on pay-per-view.

Francis Ngannou’s pursuit of the heavyweight title failed to produce fruit as he suffered a unanimous loss to Stipe Miocic, becomes the first-ever heavyweight to defend his title successfully three times, and broke the division’s record for title defenses.

Despite the fact, the UFC hype machine was in full force ahead of this fight. Most of that hype focused on Francis Ngannou.

Stipe Miocic isn’t the most charismatic champion the UFC has ever had, but he’s one of the greatest heavyweight fighters to ever step foot in the UFC Octagon.

At the UFC 220’s post-fight press conference, Ngannou said he realized that this fight showed him that he needs to improve as a fighter, and said he learned a new part of the sport which he ignored.

“I still believe I have a lot to learn,” Ngannou said (transcript courtesy of Bloody Elbow). “A lot of fighters be doing this for a while, and I just doing for four years. I know that in four years, you can’t learn what people did in 15 years or for their entire life.

You still have to improve, double your effort, and work harder. And that is what I’m doing, because I know I was late (to the sport).”

“Tonight, I learned that I never learned in this sport since four years,” he said. “I underestimated my opponent, and I discovered some new parts of this sport that I ignored about it. I learned a lot tonight.”

Ngannou used all the energy he had behind his punches early, unfortunately for him, those punches did not put Stipe Miocic away. That left Ngannou with little energy for the final 15-20 minutes of the fight.

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Published on January 21, 2018 at 12:00 am
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