The UFC seemed to heavily promote Francis Ngannou for UFC 220, but Stipe Miocic had to remind everyone why he's champ. It almost felt like we were watching an old kung fu movie where a school's top student challenges another school's master. With this victory, Miocic becomes the first UFC heavyweight to successfully defend his title 3 consecutive times. More impressively, he did it with a 50-44 unanimous decision win over the talented & rising superstar Ngannou at the TD Garden in Boston.
Both fighters landed massive strikes on each other in the opening round, so hard that both fighters must have felt like they got hit by pickup trucks. Miocic would attempt a takedown everytime Ngannou would land a punch and before the round ended, attempted an armbar & a choke on Ngannou.
As Ngannou aggressively used his "1 punch to end them all" style, Miocic showcased his superb mixed martial arts skill to pretty much own the 2nd round. He took Ngannou down again and landed explosives knees to the body & man handled Ngannou as if he was a 15 year old student.
Ngannou almost got his game-plan in order in the 3rd round when he tagged Miocic with a right, but Miocic stopped his momentum with a takedown and had things under control until the 3rd round ended.
Miocic scored a takedown to begin the 4th round and landed thunderous shots from the top position as Ngannou held on & defended. The takedown was so critical because both men were extremely exhausted at the beginning of the 4th round, with Miocic seeming to be in better cardio shape. With the 50-44 unanimous decision you can imagine that round 5 was pretty much the same, and it was.
Miocic snapped Ngannou's 9 fight winning streak but more legendarily, he became the first heavyweight to defend his title 3 consecutive times. Congratulations Stipe Miocic!
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