Champ Stipe Miocic reacts to Francis Ngannou’s big win, expected heavyweight title shot

Last weekend, in the co-main event of the absolutely wild UFC 218 card, surging heavyweight contender Francis Ngannou picked up the biggest win of his career thus far, punching Alistair Overeem’s head into outer space, where it is believed to have settled somewhere among the comets and asteroids of the Kuiper Belt. With this absolutely destructive victory, the French-Cameroonian juggernaut seems to have positioned himself for a fight with dominant UFC heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic.

While Ngannou could easily be the most dangerous challenger of Miocic’s reign thus far, the champ doesn’t seem to be particularly worried. Shortly after Ngannou’s big UFC 218 win, he took to Twitter with a simple, yet clear message: “And Still.” In other words, he expects to leave a prospective battle with Ngannou with the belt still wrapped tightly around his midsection.

And still… pic.twitter.com/IwZPxLIXpL

— Stipe Miocic (@stipemiocicufc) December 4, 2017

With his win over Overeem, Ngannou rocketed to 6-0 in the UFC. In this span, he’s dished out public executions of Luis Henrique, Curtis Blaydes, Bojan Mihajlovic, Anthony Hamilton, Andrei Arlovski, and of course, Overeem. The hulking heavyweight’s overall record now stands at 11-1.

Miocic, meanwhile, is riding high on a ridiculous string of first-round knockouts, having recently clubbed Andrei Arlovski, Fabricio Werdum, Alistair Overeem and Junior Dos Santos into unconsciousness. This streak of first-round wins was preceded by an absolute mauling of Mark Hunt, which was finally called to a stop after four and a half ultra-violent rounds. He’s 17-2 overall.

Though the date of this potential Miocic vs. Ngannou scrap is still far from set, UFC President Dana White recently suggested it could headline UFC 220 in Boston, taking the card’s top spot from Daniel Cormier’s planned light heavyweight title defense against Volkan Oezdemir.

Who do you think comes out on top in a fight between Stipe Miocic and Francis Ngannou? Is Miocic’s confidence justified?

This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 4/12/2017.