Cameroonian Mixed Martial Artist, Francis Ngannou has on Sunday dished out a martial arts masterclass at Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) to emerge as first heavyweight champion from Africa.
Northeast Ohio native Stipe Miocic saw his reign as UFC Heavyweight Champion come to an end on Saturday night after being knocked out by Cameroon-born Ngannou in the main event of UFC 260.
The two fighters met in Octagon three years ago, with Miocic emerging victorious by unanimous decision but Ngannou has now gotten his revenge.
Cameroonian landed a series of punches which rocked Miocic which the 34-year-old leveraged on to end the bout, as Ngannou knocked out his opponent with a bad left hook that saw the former champion lose composure and make him crash to the ground in a heap.
Ngannou followed up with more punches and ended the game in quick time, earning his fifth straight victory.
Ngannou while speaking of the finishing sequence in comments, according to CBS MMA, said;
He did a mistake of following me, maybe he thought I was hurt or something. That’s when I caught him. We’ve been putting in a lot of work, we’ve been working on everything. Every day, we’ve been working on those things. I worked every day and learned to relax and get the best out of myself instead of going out and rushing.
With the victory, Ngannou improves his record to 16-3, while Miocic falls to 20-4 win.
It is the 34-year old Ngannou’s 12th knockout victory and he’s rated the hardest puncher in the history of UFC.
Africa has their first heavyweight champion!
🇨🇲 @Francis_Ngannou is the heavyweight king. #UFC260 pic.twitter.com/Db83Z4lIjp
— UFC (@ufc) March 28, 2021
Ngannou has now joined the league of African champions – Israel Adesanya and Kamaru Usman are champions of Middleweight and Welterweight categories respectively. With this, Africa has more male UFC Champions than any other continent.
The Cameroonian has been hailed by those in the UFC circles and outside the sport. His next clash may be against Jon “Bones” Jones who has indicated interest in fighting him.
Following his win over Miocic, Ngannou said he would be ready for fight Jones in July or August.
