Francis Ngannou won the UFC heavyweight championship on Saturday night, stopping Stipe Miocic with fierce punches early in the second round at UFC 260.
Ngannou (11-2) avenged his loss to Miocic in 2018, demonstrating everything he learned in the following three years during a dominant victory. The first UFC heavyweight champion in Africa flattened Miocic (21-3) twice at the start of the second, ending the fight 52 seconds into the round.
The fight ended quickly after Ngannou won the first round. Miocic recovered from his first knockdown in the second round and even landed a right hand that hurt Ngannou, but the challenger responded with a perfect left hook, depositing Miocic more or less on the screen again for submission.
Ngannou, 34, is a former aspiring boxer who discovered mixed martial arts after he left Cameroon for France. He rose quickly in his new sport with his fearsome power and growing general skill, but Miocic interrupted his rise by winning every round of his first fight in Boston.
The long-awaited changing of the guard at the top of the UFC heavyweight division finally happened in the rematch. In the Vegas cage, Ngannou was too much for Miocic, the Cleveland firefighter who is the most accomplished heavyweight champion in UFC history.
In the main co-fight of this show on pay-per-view at the UFC Apex academy, on the promotion’s corporate campus, former welterweight champion Tyron Woodley lost his fourth straight fight when Vicente Luque finished with a D’Arce choke. at the end of the first. Round.
UFC 260 became a showcase for Ngannou, who this time was up to the challenge.
Ngannou’s loss to Miocic in 2018 has shaken the confidence of a once dynamic fighter. He barely punched his next fight, an embarrassing defeat for Derrick Lewis.
But Ngannou regained his confidence impressively in late 2018 and started a series of four consecutive knockout victories against veteran heavyweights, putting him back in the cage with Miocic.
Miocic’s heavyweight reign was the best in the history of a notoriously tumultuous UFC division. He reigned as champion for four of the past five years, winning eight of his last nine fights overall and emphatically avenging his only loss to Daniel Cormier.
Miocic won the last two fights in his trilogy with Cormier to cement his heavyweight supremacy over the only opponent who had fought since the first fight with Ngannou.
Woodley (19-7-1), who reigned over the 170-pound division for almost three years until Kamaru Usman took over his belt in March 2019, looked certain at the start and hit some strong kicks before being won and finished by Luque ( 20-7-1), who won 13 of his last 15 fights.
Earlier, roosterweight Sugar Sean O’Malley overcame a huge early mental error by finishing in Thomas Almeida’s third round.
O’Malley, the exciting fighter with rainbow-dyed hair, knocked Almeida down in the first round with a kick to the head and a big punch, but instead of submitting his opponent to the ground, O’Malley anticipated a stoppage and left before to realize the fight was not interrupted.
When he knocked Almeida down again in the third, O’Malley briefly tried to pull away before attacking and throwing a final punch that bounced Almeida’s head off the screen.
The UFC is heading to Jacksonville for its next pay-per-view show next month because Florida officials will allow Dana White to sell all seats in an arena, but the promotion still welcomed a few dozen fans for Apex.
The crowd included Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow, Megan Fox, Kourtney Kardashian, Travis Barker and former UFC owners Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta, who have not publicly attended a fight night since they sold the company in 2016.