A year ago, if you asked UFC fans who is the most terrifying man on the planet, many would tell you that man is Francis Ngannou. The massive Cameroonian born mixed martial artist known as “The Predator” boasts some of the most devastating knockout power on the planet, prompting many to compare him to the great Mike Tyson in his prime, picking him to be the next cash cow for the company.
He hit a few rough patches in his career in the form of arguably the greatest heavyweight of all time, Stipe Miocic, and a lackluster performance against Derrick Lewis, but came back with a vengeance destroying the durable and skilled Curtis Blaydes in only 45 seconds.
Many thought the rematch with Blaydes would result in a three-fight losing streak. Ngannou had openly talked about how the wrestling of Miocic got in his head and he struggled to find his rhythm as a result in the Lewis fight.
But the African prodigy wasn’t interested in proving the doubters right as he came out early, pressuring his former victim and quickly landed an overhand right that put Blaydes down. Francis swarmed his opponent, knocking him down two more times until the finish finally came. It woke the rest of the division back up. He may not be the perfect martial artist just yet, but damn can he crack.
While he did prove many of his doubters wrong, much of the criticism was well deserved, he barely engaged Derrick Lewis in what has been dubbed “the worst heavyweight fight in history” by commentator Joe Rogan, during the fight, and the legions of reporters and fans afterward.
After candidly opening up to the media about how the Miocic beatdown scared him and left him unconfident in his abilities, many had written him off as another rising star that burned too bright too early. He was written off as an entertaining stepping stone for other young fighters to build their careers off of beating the monster from Africa.
But he came out against another wrestler, which many have said is his worst matchup now, and instead of the same timid man, we were treated with a light-footed and aggressive striker that many grew to love on his rise to the top. It is an unforgiving sport, and a win over a man he’d already beaten isn’t enough for us to say he can be champ just yet, but it showed growth, maturity, and courage. Qualities he had not shown before.
Now the dream of Ngannou becoming the star we all knew he could one day rise to be, became a lot more than just a memory.
With the UFC’s habit of giving these marketable fighters favorable matchups to build them up, especially after a couple of losses, you’d think they’d continue with the same business model for someone like him.
The last thing anybody expected was for the UFC to match him up with former two-time heavyweight champion and, along with Miocic, arguably the greatest heavyweight fighter of all time. The often unstoppable Cain Velasquez.
“Cardio Cain” hasn’t fought since July 9, 2016 at UFC 200 where he defeated Travis Browne by a first-round TKO. The American Kickboxing Academy project and teammate of current heavyweight king Daniel Cormier (who frequently tells the world he could never beat Cain) has been struggling on and off with injuries his entire career.
It has been frustrating to most to know that this talent has been sitting idly by due to injuries and unexplained contract disputes. Watching this freak of nature put a pace on guys was unlike anything anyone had ever seen. Sure we’ve witnessed heavyweights move like lightweights, throw up crazy wild submissions from bizarre positions, and plenty of other wild feats of athleticism by fighters. But Cain’s ability to start at full speed and go five rounds ending at the same speed is nothing short of incredible.
The former college wrestler generally takes fights to the ground and outworks his opponents with vicious ground and pound, frequently finishing his opponents in the first round. However, like most elite fighters these days, he is not one-dimensional. With only two exceptions, Cain has outstruck every opponent on the feet by a wide margin and has knocked many down with his strikes, including warriors like Browne and Antonio Nogueira. He may not have devastating power, but a clean shot will put just about anyone down.
He is, by all definitions, the absolute worst fight for Ngannou to rise back to the top. Ngannou’s weakness, as we saw against Miocic, was his wrestling. He showed great takedown defense up to that fight, including his first bout with Blaydes, but Miocic was able to get him down, wear him out, and just beat on him.
Imagine what Cain might do.
If the former champ, can grab the leg early and drag it to the mat. Ngannou will experience pressure on an entirely different level than he has before. Miocic might be the best ever, but no one breaks his opponents’ wills like Cain. He’s a monster on top of his victims.
That’s not to say Ngannou can’t win this fight. By the very definition of who this man is, he can win just about any fight; hell even a lazy uppercut in the fifth round could put Cain on his butt and every round starts standing. But odds are if Ngannou wins, it’ll be very early in the opening rounds.
The formula is all too familiar to the most publicized fight in MMA history. When Cain’s teammate at AKA, Khabib Nurmagomedov, defended his lightweight title against one of the most popular athletes on the planet today, Conor McGregor, just about everyone with an opinion worth a damn would have told you the same thing.
Conor can finish, but he’d need to do it early, because once Khabib makes him work, once the pressure starts and the lactic acid builds up in his arms, his explosive fast twitch muscles will diminish. He will be tired and the effectiveness of his strikes will significantly drop.
Ngannou is in the same boat as Conor. Once the pressure starts, once the pace pushes him, he will become less explosive and his primary weapons will become dull and inefficient. But while Conor is a great athlete, Ngannou is a freak athlete. After he finished Anthony Hamilton with a first-round submission from a standing Kimura, rumors began to circulate that he had learned the technique only hours before the fight and then implemented it perfectly (which isn’t hard when you’re that strong) in the middle of combat.
The argument could be made that he just hadn’t been training his grappling as much as he needed to for his title fight against Miocic. Falling in love with his hands and knockout power just like so many inexperienced fighters have before. But that’s just pure speculation, however, even if he has been training his ass off, he still would have to out-grapple “Cardio Cain,” the most ferocious grappler we’ve ever seen.
It could help that Cain hasn’t gotten any younger and is coming off of a two-and-a-half-year layoff. The ring rust could play a factor, the injuries could play a factor. There are just too many variables to accurately predict what is going to happen.
But the heavyweight showdown in the main event of the UFC’s first full fight card on ESPN on February 17 is sure to be a show to see. Whether it’s a devastating first-round KO by the man who could still one day become the boogeyman of the heavyweight division or the magnificent return of one of the greatest fighters of all time, we are all surely going to be endlessly entertained. And the ever so shallow heavyweight division is sure to be a hell of a lot more interesting.
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