Francis Ngannou News

Chris Taylor - July 7, 2018

A key heavyweight fight featuring former title challenger Francis Ngannou taking on perennial contender Derrick Lewis served as the co-headliner of tonight’s UFC 226 pay-per-view event in Las Vegas. The Lewis vs. Ngannou fight was expected to be a barn burner, with most fans and analysts believing it would end within the first five minutes.

Chris Taylor - July 7, 2018

A key heavyweight fight between former title challenger Francis Ngannou and perennial contender Derrick Lewis served as the co-headliner of tonight’s UFC 226 pay-per-view event in Las Vegas. Francis Ngannou entered tonight’s contest sporting an 11-2 record, with all eleven of his wins coming by form of stoppage.

Tom Taylor - July 2, 2018

At UFC 226, hulking Cameroonian-French heavyweight contender Francis Ngannou will step into the cage with titan of a similar stature: American behemoth Derrick Lewis. This bout will mark Ngannou’s opportunity to rebound from a tough loss to UFC heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic — an experience he assures he learned from.

Tom Taylor - July 1, 2018

Back in January, in the main event of UFC 220, hulking French-Cameroonian heavyweight contender Francis Ngannou stepped into the cage with divisional champ Stipe Miocic, and promptly attempted to take his head off. Ngannou swung like he wanted to send Miocic’s head to settle amongst the mess of dead satellites in earth’s orbit, and when that failed do so, he swung some more. Then, he got tired — which gave the champ Miocic to opportunity to get to work with his boxing and wrestling, and ultimately, capture a lopsided unanimous decision victory from his exhausted foe.

Tom Taylor - May 17, 2018

Francis Ngannou entered his UFC 220 title fight with UFC heavyweight champ Stipe Miocic with mountains of hype connected his name. Unfortunately, his showdown with Miocic did not go the way his hype suggested it would. Instead, he was dominated to a five-round unanimous decision loss, and had some fairly serious deficits in the wrestling and cardio departments exposed along the way. In the wake of Ngannou’s failed title bid, people were so disappointed with his performance that they apparently went after his head coach Dewey Cooper on social media, even issuing death threats.

Tom Taylor - May 8, 2018

Can’t wait for @ufc July 7th!! @francis_ngannou @syndicatemma @UnbrandedSupply #mma #ufc #monsterenergy #team pic.twitter.com/2OzDQDs2y3 — John Wood (@bigwoodmma) May 4, 2018

Tom Taylor - March 26, 2018

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bgj6rrXn-lc/ In the lead-up to UFC 220’s heavyweight title showdown between champion Stipe Miocic and challenger Francis Ngannou, much was made of Ngannou’s absurd, fight-ending punching power.

Tom Taylor - March 20, 2018

On Monday’s edition of The MMA Hour, Francis Ngannou re-upped on his previous calls for a fight with former UFC heavyweight champion and current WWE star Brock Lesnar. “Please Brock, come back, come back my friend. We need you here,” Ngannou said (h/t MMAFighting). “We need you to put the fun in this division. I need you to give me that f*cking fight I’ve been waiting for for a long time, I’ve been dreaming for [it].”

Tom Taylor - March 19, 2018

Boxing heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua is flirting with a move to the UFC, and he’s got to big names in mind if he makes this perilous jump: Jon Jones and Francis Ngannou. The undefeated knockout machine discussed this exciting possibility on Sky Sports’ boxing’s Toe 2 Toe podcast.

Tom Taylor - March 19, 2018

Derrick Lewis isn’t the only fighter gunning for a scrap with Francis Ngannou. Mark Hunt also has his eyes on the French knockout artist, ideally this August, at the UFC’s rumored debut in Hawaii. “We’re looking to see if I can get Ngannou for August in Hawaii – that’d be great,” Hunt recently told Sporting News.

Tom Taylor - March 19, 2018

Over the last year, brick-fisted heavyweight contender Derrick Lewis has made repeated callouts of recent heavyweight title challenger Francis Ngannou. On Sunday afternoon, Ngannou finally responded to these callouts, telling Lewis to have his manager contact the UFC about this prospective showdown.

Tom Taylor - March 18, 2018

Over the last few months, hulking UFC heavyweight Derrick “The Black Beast” Lewis has made repeated callouts of recent UFC heavyweight title challenger Francis Ngannou. “My coach just believes that I would really destroy Francis. My coach don’t like Francis at all either. I believe that I’m better than Francis all the way around,” Lewis said in a recent interview with FloCombat. “Striking, grappling, ground game, submission, whatever. I believe I’ve got better conditioning than him. I’m better disciplined. I listen to my coaches. I really believe I could beat this guy.”

Justin Golightly - March 13, 2018

Francis Ngannou of the most severe and recent examples of how brutal MMA is and how forgetful fans are. Just before UFC 220, he was primed to be the next big thing and we were already planning mega fights with Brock Lesnar. After Stipe Miocic stifled him, it’s like he disappeared in the minds of the UFC and the public. His boxing coach Dewey Cooper vows that this won’t last long. Ngannou will learn from his mistakes and come back even better. “I got one word to describe [Francis Ngannou]: Phenomenal. We had an off night and we all felt that night, that Francis at his worst still couldn’t be stopped. That’s all I can say about that. Francis at his best won’t be defeated and him at his worst could not even be stopped. We got the best heavyweight in UFC couldn’t stop a guy who was just not at his best that night. Francis man, he’s phenomenal and he will definitely be back stronger than ever. […] Stipe was at his best and we just weren’t at our best and there will be improvement from that.”

Justin Golightly - March 6, 2018

Derrick Lewis made his triumphant return at UFC Austin with a late knockout of Marcin Tybura. After a delayed fourth round celebration with his wife, he went right back on the warpath trying to fight the who’s who of the heavyweight division. He’s been eyeing Francis Ngannou, but he’s just one of many. He’s even willing to welcome Brock Lesnar back to the UFC, regardless of USADA testing or not. “Yeah hopefully we can get something done this year, man. Hopefully we can get something before [Francis Ngannou] turns 50 on us. Usually after every fight, I tell them I would like to fight this guy. I always try to pick out the toughest guys that’s out there. […] I told them Francis, I told them [Alistair] Overeem, even a rematch with Mark [Hunt]. Who’s the other guy, [Curtis] Blaydes and Fabricio [Werdum]. Yeah, [the winner of Blaydes and Overeem]. I’d like to fight in May or June.”

Tom Taylor - February 21, 2018

In the wake of Derrick Lewis’ latest thunderous knockout win, which came against a gritty Marcin Tybura, fans immediately began clamoring for a matchup between him and fellow knockout artist Francis Ngannou. From the looks of it, the UFC has been listening.

Justin Golightly - February 14, 2018

From steroid allegations to body shaming, Derrick Lewis has been all over Francis Ngannou after he came up short in his fight against Stipe Miocic. He was already criticizing the fighter, but this only intensified after Lewis found out Ngannou’s pay in the main event title fight at UC 220. If Lewis is able to beat Marcin Tybura on Sunday, it sounds like he’ll be looking for a title shot himself, even if it’s just to drink beer and gas out. “For sure, that’s all I really care about [is money]. Now that I’ve seen that – what’s his name, Francis [Ngannou]? – he got $500,000 just fighting for the belt. Let me fight for the belt next. They can give me $500,000. Sh-t, I’m going to gas out too. Guaranteed $500,000? You don’t have to worry about me training before a camp. I’ll be drinking a beer right after weigh-ins.”

Tom Taylor - February 8, 2018

Last month, in the main event of UFC 220, the hype train of Francis Ngannou came to an abrupt halt at the hands of UFC heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic. For five rounds, the champ out-fought the challenger, exposing major deficits in his wrestling and his cardio in the process. Speaking on a recent episode of his podcast, UFC color commentator Joe Rogan (one of the biggest drivers of Ngannou’s hype train before UFC 220) discussed the outcome of the UFC 220 main event.

Justin Golightly - February 6, 2018

The Black Beast Derrick Lewis is set to return against Marcin Tybura at UFC Austin, but he’s still on a mission to flame Francis Ngannou and his muscles. Ngannou had his biggest test ever in his short career and came up short in an exhausting performance against Stipe Miocic. Even though he loss, he’s one of the very few heavyweights out of huge names not to be knocked out by the heavy-handed firefighter. It was a huge learning experience for the fighter, but Lewis claims history is bound to repeat itself unless Ngannou does something about his body. “I watched the highlights of the Francis [Ngannou] fight. I didn’t watch the fight cause I didn’t want to give Francis my money and pay for his pay-per-view. I seen the highlights and Stipe [Miocic] had him against the cage and Francis is on his knees and Stipe wasn’t putting that much pressure on him. All Francis had to do was stand straight up, and Francis couldn’t even stand straight up. I know I wouldn’t just let Stipe hold me down like that. I knew he wasn’t going to walk through Stipe. It was a five-round fight and Stipe is a good wrestler. I knew that’s what Stipe was going to go in there and do. Ngannou had too much muscle. He was going to gas out quick as hell.”