Last month, at UFC 220 one of the promotion’s most highly-anticipated bouts, where UFC heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic bested punching power Francis Ngannou in a five-round decision that was entirely one-sided. Ngannou punched all of his gas tank out in the first round, and Miocic coasted to an easy decision win.
Hype machine Francis Ngannou was outclassed by Stipe Miocic, particularly on the ground.
Joe Rogan, a long-time UFC commentator, still believes Francis Ngannou is one of the terrifying fighters in the sport but needs to fix up the holes in his grappling, while speaking on a recent episode of his podcast.
“He tried to take Stipe out in the first round. His thought was that Stipe’s not going to be able to survive,” Rogan said (h/t International Business Times). “[But] he doesn’t know how to wrestle that well. Stipe was a very good college wrestler and obviously a bad motherf*cker. He took some hard shots too but that’s the thing about Stipe. It’s not just that he knows how to fight, he’s just f*cking tough.”
“I thought it’s very possible Francis could win this fight, he’s just so scary. I’ve never seen anyone that’s so terrifying with one punch.”
Francis Ngannou currently trains at the MMA Factory in Paris, while Joe Rogan believes Ngannou would evolve at a much faster rate if he joins the like of Cain Velasquez, Daniel Cormier, Luke Rockhold, and Khabib Nurmagomedov at San Jose’s American Kickboxing Academy (AKA).
“You watch the training camps with Daniel Cormier, Luke Rockhold and Cain Velasquez, there’s a reason why those guys are so goddamn good because iron sharpens iron,” Rogan added. “Those guys are in there, world champions going at it with each other on a daily basis and because of that, that’s what turned them into those f*cking monsters that they are today.”
“Francis is just a physical freak but if he was in that camp? Holy s**t.”
Do you think Francis Ngannou could get benefit by joining the American Kickboxing Academy?
