Francis Ngannou throws a punch against Stipe Miocic in their Heavyweight Championship fight during UFC 220 at TD Garden on January 20, 2018 in Boston, Massachusetts. (Photo by Mike Lawrie/Getty Images)
Francis Ngannou wants a title rematch against Stipe Miocic and is changing his approach
UFC Heavyweight Champion Stipe Miocic isn’t keen on fighting Francis Ngannou but that isn’t the case for the challenger.
Ngannou has been excellent over the past year or so and seems ready for another title clash. However, Miocic defeated the 34-year-old at UFC 220 but is on a four-fight win streak.
Ngannou seems to be in the form of his life but defeating Miocic won’t be easy. The 34-year-old was speaking to Helen Yee and was asked about the possible second fight and how it would go:
“First of all, I am not going to rush and take my time to get prepared and then trying to execute my game plan and what I have been working on and put everything to win that fight.”
Yee then asked what was required for him to get the win. And the French-Cameroon star spoke about changing his approach when compared to the previous fight:
“Doesn’t matter it’s just important to win. The first mistake that I did was I worked in there to knock him out. He didn’t play well for me.
“I never worked in a fight to knock someone out and the first time I intended to do that, it didn’t work so I let him go.”
While Ngannou spoke about his plans and tried to keep it a secret, he defended some of the actions from Israel Adesanya.
He is close to the Last Stylebender but the Middleweight champion came under a barrage of criticism after his celebrations at UFC 253.
Costa and Adesanya had been in a bitter battle of words and Ngannou defended the Stylebender:
“To understand his post-fight celebration, you have to go to his pre-fight first.
“I think there was a lot of back and forth between those two people. He took a lot on him and got frustrated but he finally have an opportunity to let him to go and say it.
“When you say something and they reply back to you, it might not be the great thing that you would like to have but you just have to take it since you are the one who provoked that.”
Ngannou wants to face Miocic at UFC 256 which is on 12 December. He claimed that the ball is in the UFC and Miocic’s court, and it will be interesting to see if this fight is finally made.
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