UFC heavyweight Francis Ngannou, left, and UFC heavyweight Derrick Lewis are separated by UFC President Dana White during a face-off at the UFC 226 Press Conference at the Pearl at the Palms in Las Vegas on Thursday, July 5, 2018. (Photo by Hans Gutknecht, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
Francis Ngannou vs Derrick Lewis rematch might have a new date
Ngannou smashed Stipe Miocic at UFC 260 to win the heavyweight championship. In the immediate aftermath of his victory, a fight against Jon Jones was looming large.
However, a payment dispute between the light-heavyweight GOAT and UFC President Dana White meant that the fight was handed to Derrick Lewis.
Dana White revealed a couple of weeks ago that the UFC was planning to make the fight headline UFC 265 in August. But, the latest development is that the fight might be rescheduled for September.
The news was first reported by Ariel Helwani. Taking to Twitter he wrote:
“UFC hoped to book Francis Ngannou x Derrick Lewis 2 for Aug. 7 but that is currently looking like a long shot at this point, sources say. Scheduling conflicts. Nothing finalized at the moment but September is now a new target, I’m told.”
As per UFC’s current schedule, only UFC 266 is in the month of September and is headlined by a light-heavyweight title bout between Jan Blachowicz and Glover Teixeira.
UFC 265, meanwhile is a headlined by a women’s bantamweight championship Amanda Nunes and Julianna Pena.
Ngannou took on Lewis in the co-main event of UFC 226. According to a boatload of fight fans, this was one of the most boring fights ever.
Both the knockout artists played it safe. However, Lewis was able to outstrike Ngannou, and emerge victorious via. unanimous decision.
Lewis will be drawing inspiration from his win over Ngannou, and will be hoping to recreate the same thing against ‘The Predator.’
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