Francis Ngannou's penchant for knockouts might be his Achilles heel at UFC 260: Michael Bisping
UFC commentator and former middleweight champion Michael Bisping has explained why Francis Ngannou’s penchant for quick knockouts could inhibit his chances in his UFC 260 main event against Stipe Miocic.
Three years ago at UFC 220, Francis Ngannou came up short in his attempt to win the UFC heavyweight title, as he was decisively beaten by the reigning champion Miocic.
Since then, Francis has lost to Derrick Lewis in a pretty dull encounter before bouncing back with four incredible knockout wins against Curtis Blaydes, Cain Velasquez, Junior dos Santos and Jairzinho Rozenstruik, respectively.
Francis Ngannou hasn't gone into the 'deep waters' in his fights: Michael Bisping
In each of his four wins since the Miocic loss, Francis Ngannou hasn't been at the octagon for more than three minutes, whereas the Stipe Miocic bout had gone for 25 long minutes.
During a pre-fight preview with BT Sport, Michael Bisping explained why Francis Ngannou's lack of enough octagon minutes could work against him.
“The problem for Ngannou is experience. Stipe definitely has the experience advantage in this, and you cannot buy that, it can only be earned. Since that first fight, he (Ngannou) hasn’t really gathered any experience. Look at the fight against Rozenstruik - he just went out there and blitzed him. That’s essentially what he does with every single fight.
Michael Bisping continued in this regard:
“That’s fantastic, that’s a great confidence builder, but you’re not learning any lessons. You’re not getting put in bad positions. It’s another cliche: you only learn from your defeats, but you also learn if you go the distance, and if you go into the deep waters. He hasn’t had a chance to do that, and that could impact him a little bit because since then, maybe this confidence of knocking everybody out, maybe that affects your ability to get out of bed in the morning and go for a run. Maybe you don’t push yourself as hard on the pads.
Bisping said that because of his 'easy' wins, Francis Ngannou may not have trained hard enough for a seasoned campaigner and superior wrestler like Miocic, something that might come back to haunt him on Saturday.
"Maybe you don’t do ten rounds of pad work and the drills and the circuit training and when you’re pushing yourself so hard running down the street because you’re doing your sprints. Because you don’t need to. Because ‘I can just knock anybody out with just one shot’, know what I’m saying? If he has that mentality, he’s gonna lose this fight. Because Stipe Miocic has been in there with him, he’s beaten him, he knows what to do. He can outwrestle Ngannou all day long,” observed Bisping.
It remains to be seen what transpires on Saturday night, but if Francis Ngannou doesn’t come prepared for a war, he could easily struggle.