Often, when a UFC champion enjoys the level of success that heavyweight Stipe Miocic has, the theme of motivation comes up.
For example, what makes Miocic move on, when he has defended the title more times than any heavyweight in UFC history? What is fueling this fire, when he already knows what it is like to lose the title and win it back? When do we call him the greatest heavyweight of all time? When your next opponent, Francis Ngannou, at UFC 260 on Saturday, is a man he once dominated, five rounds to zero?
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These are all fair questions for the champion, but earlier this weekend, Miocic’s level of motivation is not being questioned. Why not?
The answer probably has something to do with the fact that Miocic ever has an obvious source of motivation for fights. And that motivation is that, somehow, we continue to doubt this guy.
Despite all his achievements, Miocic (20-3) is a gambling underdog this weekend against Ngannou (15-3) – just as he was in his last two fights against Daniel Cormier and his first fight with Ngannou in 2018. Before the fight for the title this weekend, the eighth of Miocic’s career, much of the focus is, again, on the other guy – since it was the first time that he and Ngannou fought.
“I love to shut people up,” said Miocic on the UFC’s “Countdown” program, one of the main marketing tools of the promotion before any pay-per-view. “My whole life.”
There are similarities between UFC 260 and UFC 220, in which Miocic defeated Ngannou for five rounds in Boston – and then took off the championship belt from Dana White before the UFC president could get him involved, because Miocic wanted his coach, Marcus Marinelli, to do that.
Whether anyone wants to admit it or not, there was a feeling in 2018 that the UFC (and perhaps the sport, in a broader sense) was ready to move from Miocic to Ngannou. There was an unmistakable feeling of “us against the world” radiating from Team Miocic, and you can’t tell me that it didn’t highlight Miocic’s act of taking White’s belt that night.
And even though this weekend everyone agrees that Miocic is the greatest heavyweight of all time, it is very telling that the first thing you hear from him on the “Countdown” program is: “I love to shut people up”. If there is a positive side to not receiving due respect, it may be that motivation is never an issue.
By the numbers
18: Percentage of Ngannou’s significant attack attempts that resulted in his first meeting with Miocic, who connected in a 73% clip. This translated into a 70-21 lead for the champion, with Ngannou dropping just six after the first round.
6: Taken down by Miocic in the 2018 fight with Ngannou. The champion has 25 takedowns in the UFC, drawing with former double champion Randy Couture for the third time in heavyweight history.
0: Ngannou wins in which he failed to finish. He has 15 career wins, 11 by knockout and four by submission.
162: Seconds Ngannou has fought in the last four fights, knocked out in 45 (Curtis Blaydes), 26 (Cain Velasquez), 71 (Junior dos Santos) and 20 seconds (Jairzinho Rozenstruik). This unites Ngannou with Miocic, Derek Brunson and Shane Carwin for the highest number of consecutive knockouts in the first round in the modern UFC era.
two: UFC champions born in Africa: the middleweight Israel Adesanya and the welterweight Kamaru Usman, both Nigerians. Ngannou is from neighboring Cameroon.
Sources: ESPN Stats & Information and UFC Stats
A look back
Five against five
Stipe Miocic’s latest results
Victory: Daniel Cormier (UD, August 15, 2020; watch on ESPN +)
Victory: Daniel Cormier (TKO4, 17 August 2019; watch on ESPN +)
Loss: Daniel Cormier (KO1, July 7, 2018)
Victory: Francis Ngannou (UD, January 20, 2018)
Vitória: Junior dos Santos (TKO1, May 13, 2017)
Latest Francis Ngannou results
Vitória: Jairzinho Rozenstruik (KO1, May 9, 2020; watch on ESPN +)
Vitória: Junior dos Santos (TKO1, June 29, 2019; watch on ESPN +)
Victory: Cain Velasquez (KO1, February 17, 2019; watch on ESPN +)
Victory: Curtis Blaydes (TKO1, November 24, 2018)
Loss: Derrick Lewis (UD, July 7, 2018)
Dom and Gil’s cinema study
Dominick Cruz on Miocic’s ability to prevent damage:
Gilbert Melendez on changes that will help Ngannou:
And the winner is …
“If Stipe implements the same game plan as last time, wrestling, I believe he will win. If he doesn’t, I believe he will be knocked out,” said Javier Mendez, a coach at the American Kickboxing Academy in San Jose, California, ESPN. “If you take Ngannou’s power by fighting him, you will beat him. He’s a big guy. It takes a lot of muscle for him to move and punch like he does.”
Check out how Mendez and other experts analyze the main event at UFC 260.
Saturday fight card
PPV (via ESPN +), 10 pm eastern time
Stipe Miocic (c) against Francis Ngannou | Heavy weight
Tyron Woodley x Vicente Luque | Welterweight
Sean O’Malley x Thomas Almeida | Male bantamweight
Gillian Robertson vs. Miranda Maverick | Women’s Flyweight
Khama Worthy vs. Jamie Mullarkey | Light
ESPN / ESPN Deportes / ESPN +, 8 pm ET
Alonzo Menifield x Fabio Cherant | Light heavyweight
Abubakar Nurmagomedov x Jared Gooden | Welterweight
Modestas Bukauskas vs Michal Oleksiejczuk | Light heavyweight
Shane Young vs Omar Morales | Men’s featherweight
ESPN / ESPN Deportes / ESPN +, 7:30 pm ET
Marc-André Barriault x Abu Azaitar | Average weight
(c) = title champion
How to watch the fights
Watch PPV and all other fights on ESPN +. Get ESPN + here.
Watch the preliminaries on ESPN, ESPN Deportes or ESPN +. Download the ESPN app | WatchESPN | TV
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There is also the FightCenter, which offers live updates for all UFC cards.
Four more things to know (from ESPN Stats & Information)
1 Former welterweight champion Tyron Woodley will try to break a three-game losing streak by taking on Vicente Luque, who has won two in a row and eight of his last nine. Woodley, who is tenth in the ESPN welterweight ranking, will have his standing defense tested, with Luque hitting 5.72 significant strokes per minute, the highest rate among 170-pound athletes.
two Sean O’Malley, coming from his first defeat, faces Thomas Almeida, who knows a thing or two about the difficulty of recovering. Almeida started his career in the UFC 4-0, but has since been 1-4. This bantamweight fight can heat up quickly. O’Malley (12-1) has eight submissions in the first round and Almeida (22-4) has 17.
3 Gillian Robertson, who fights Miranda Maverick, has six flyweight victories, tying her with champion Valentina Shevchenko and title challenger Katlyn Chookagian for the highest number in the division’s history. Maverick won his UFC debut last October by knockout in the first round and won six straight fights.
4 When Khama Worthy fights lightweight Jamie Mullarkey, he will try to recover from a seven-game winning streak that ended with a technical knockout loss to Ottman Azaitar in September.
Jeff Wagenheim of ESPN contributed to this preview of the fight.