Francis Ngannou is without a doubt the most powerful puncher in UFC history, one touch could put anyone to sleep. It does even need to land clean for Ngannou to knock someone out. His power alone was described as a Ford Escort running past his opponent, which is frightening.
When he was an upcoming prospect, most opponents feared him due to his power. He was called “The Predator” for a reason.
There were a lot of hype surrounding him he was even called by some as the next “Mike Tyson Unfortunately, Stipe Miocic had other plans and beat him in a one sided unanimous decision. Although there is no shame in losing to the greatest UFC heavyweight champion, and in his defense he still lacked experience. He started combat sport at a late age.
Ngannou has admitted that he lost to Miocic because he underestimated the champion. During that time, he thought he was invincible since most of his opponents could not get past the second round.
Dana White even revealed that the ego of Ngannou was the reason of his downfall. It was later revealed that coming to the fight Ngannou had time to travel back to France where he should used the time to train instead.
Now, Ngannou has a chance to avenge his loss and become a champion on UFC 260. He will face Miocic for the title and will be the main-event. Ngannou said that, this time he will take it seriously and will be in his best shape.
The question is has Ngannou showed that he has improved his game since his loss? Unfortunately, it is hard to gauge since he finished his opponents so quick that there is little to no data to analyze.
One of the things that he needs to improve is his endurance. Being a big guy with muscles, comes at a cost since he will carry all that weight for five rounds. When he fought Miocic, he got tired in the second or third round of the fight.
We have not seen yet whether he has improved his endurance since his longest fight was a little over a minute and it was against Junior Dos Santos. Speaking of the Dos Santos fight, he showed that he added leg kicks to his game. A strong leg kick could pose a threat to his opponents because they will not only be worrying for the punches but their legs as well.
He was also taken down by Stipe numerous times in the fight but he has not shown to grapple his last opponents. It is not his fault since he does not need it to win but he may need it to prepare against someone as well rounded as Stipe.
If we just base his last fight, he did not even care of defending. He just went and swang haymakers against Jairzinho Rozenstruik. He even got clipped with a few counters but when he landed one, it put Jairzinho to sleep. The power is just crazy for this fighter plus he also has a great chin and can take a punch.
Ngannou have the same similarities with boxing’s Deontay Wilder. Both fighters have freakish power and started in the sport late. Their power alone could bring them to the pinnacle of the sport, which is impressive considering their fundamentals are not that clean and needs improvement.
Another thing that Ngannou has is that star material it may be due to his fighting style and background story. He was born on a poor family that started working at the age of 10 where he used to do sand digging. This may be the reason that he has great power.
If Ngannou wins the heavyweight crown, he will be a huge star all over the world. As former champion Daniel Cormier would say if Ngannou wins, he will be the scariest man to walk on the face of the earth.
