Michael Bisping breaks down the gameplan Francis Ngannou used in recent fight against Stipe Miocic
Francis Ngannou was crowned the new UFC heavyweight champion after dispatching Stipe Miocic via second-round knockout in the main event of UFC 260. In the aftermath of the heavyweight clash, former UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping talked at length about the event in an episode of his podcast.
Speaking about Francis Ngannou's improvement from his previous fights, Bisping said:
"What I liked about Ngannou, of course, the explosiveness, the power that’s always been there. But we saw something we hadn’t seen before…Let’s remember his last fight against Rozenstruik, 20 seconds, Junior Dos Santos, less than a minute. You know all these guys he just ploughs through them."
"As soon as the referee says fight, he goes, like a psycho. But on this occasion, he took his time. He was very mature. He stalked his prey. Het cut off the Octagon perfectly. And he was taking his time," Bisping added.
Laying out the reasons for the approach Francis Ngannou adopted, Bisping added:
"Now that was for a variety of reasons. One of them, he didn’t want to be taken down. Two, he didn’t want to empty his gas tank too quickly. And three, he knew he was up against a serious opponent where he couldn’t get away with that. But with that more measured, controlled approach, it made him so dangerous."
Francis Ngannou's sprawling power
According to reports, Francis Ngannou's speed is measured at 51,064 foot pounds/per second, which is equivalent to the full speed of a Ford Escort.
However, Michael Bisping believes that it is of little significance when compared to the power of Francis Ngannou's sprawl. Talking about Ngannou's takedown defense, Bisping said:
"You wanna talk about the punching power of a Ford Escort hitting his face? Time that by five… the sprawling power. Because he (Stipe Miocic) goes in for the single leg and he (Francis Ngannou) is sprawling back. What you’ve gotta do is, you gotta break that grip."
"Once you break the grip you haven’t gotten hold of the leg anymore and that’s why Francis’ hips sprawling back like that is twenty times more powerful than a Ford Escort going at 17000 thousand miles an hour or whatever that stupid call was. It’s was like f***ing Spacex blasting off," Bisping added.