Stipe Miocic vs. Francis Ngannou II Official For UFC 260
Francis Ngannou will finally be able to get his hands on Stipe Miocic once again.
At the UFC Fight Island 7 post-fight press conference, UFC President Dana White was questioned about the possibility of Miocic vs. Ngannou 2 was to be the main event of UFC 260, which is expected to take place on March 27.
The UFC event on March 27 was initially thought to be a standard Fight Night event, but UFC will in fact squeeze in a second March PPV. ESPN’s Ariel Helwani reported first.
Here’s what Dana had to say:
The March date was ORGINALLY first reported by The MMA Dude.
Now that Dana has confirmed that Miocic and Ngannou 2 is official, it will headline a card that already features another recently reported title fight, a featherweight bout between champion Alexander Volkanovski and rejuvenated Brian Ortega.
Miocic and Ngannou have met before in the octagon – at UFC 220 on Jan. 20, 2018, in Boston. This was Miocic’s record-breaking third successful title defence in the heavyweight division. The defending champion used his wrestling to neutralise the explosive offense and power of Ngannou and take a very one sided decision win.
Ngannou then followed up with a loss to Derrick Lewis after Miocic, this one was a one to forget. But has since rebounded with four straight first-round KOs, none of which took longer than 71 seconds. Most recently, “The Predator” knocked out Jairzinho Rozenstruik in just 20 seconds at UFC 249 in May 2020.
In 2020, Miocic defended his strap just once, finishing out his trilogy with Daniel Cormier by winning a unanimous decision to take two out of the three fights in the rivalry. He has successfully defended the heavyweight title four times across two reigns. Miocic has won eight of his last nine UFC bouts.
With the addition UFC 260 currently looks like:
Champion Stipe Miocic vs. Francis Ngannou – For UFC Heavyweight Title
Champion Alexander Volkanovski vs. Brian Ortega – For UFC Featherweight Title
Jim Crute vs. Johnny Walker
Modestas Bukauskas vs. Michal Oleksiejczuk
