Francis Ngannou Believes He’s a Better Fighter After Learning from Stipe Miocic Setback

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Francis Ngannou believes that his Ultimate Fighting Championship heavyweight title fight loss to Stipe Miocic was a watershed moment in his career. Coming up short against a complete fighter like Miocic and the nature of the loss allowed him to understand and improve many aspects of his game.

Ngannou was on a tear before meeting Miocic in 2018, knocking out the likes of Curtis Blaydes, Andrei Arlovski and Alistair Overeem to skyrocket himself into contention for the heavyweight belt. When “The Predator” eventually got his shot last year at the champ, he found himself completely dominated by the wrestling of Miocic, losing via unanimous decision.

The 33-year-old didn’t exactly bounce back after the loss as he faced off against the heavy-hitting Derrick Lewis six months later. He lost to “The Black Beast” in bizarre circumstances in a fight where both fighters looked unwilling to exchange.

Fast forward to the present day and Ngannou has once again found his killer instinct and is back in title contention following successive finishes of Blaydes as well as former champions Cain Velasquez and Junior dos Santos.

The 33-year-old credits his newfound form following his loss against Miocic and said his quick rise to the top meant he didn’t understand a lot of things in the fight game.

“Nobody wants to lose, but I think at some point I needed a fight like that,” Ngannou told MMA Fighting. “Sooner or later, I would have faced something like that. Because my rise was very fast, very quick, and I didn’t have time to understand a lot of things.”

Ngannou added that the loss allowed him to take a long look at his own game and what it takes to become a champion like Miocic.

“What happened was even though at that point [where] I was ultimately a title contender, I still felt like I didn’t understand many things,” Ngannou said. “There were many things in the sport that I didn’t know.

“The fight against Stipe allowed me to understand many of those things. It allowed me to understand how you work and obviously, eventually when it happens again, it’s going to be different.”