Will Stipe Miocic vs. Francis Ngannou take place at UFC 256?
Following Miocic’s successful title defense in August, it was confirmed by the UFC President himself that Ngannou would be the next challenger for the 235-pound belt.
Even though Ngannou lost his first match-up against the reigning heavyweight champion at UFC 220, the 34-year-old bounced back strongly by getting four consecutive TKO’s against Curtis Blaydes, Cain Velasquez, Junior dos Santos, and Jairzinho Rozenstruik.
Following the confirmation of the title fight between the two heavyweights, there’s been no word on when the bout may actually take place until now. Speaking to The Schmo (which was translated by My MMA News), the heavyweight challenger revealed that he requested to fight for the belt at UFC 256:
“I requested for December 12, which is the last pay-per-view of the year. Almost over two months from now and I’m expecting to have that date.”
The date has yet to be confirmed just yet, though with Kamaru Usman vs. Gilbert Burns off the pay-per-view card then the heavyweight title bout would be the perfect replacement as the main event.
Miocic has mostly been quiet about his next title defense, though the heavyweight champion did state during an Instagram Q & A that he wasn’t particularly excited about his rematch against Ngannou:
“Francis isn’t exciting to me, already put on a 25-minute clinic on how to beat him," Miocic said. "I want a new challenge!”
Miocic feels that the result will be the same as his dominant win over Ngannou at UFC 220, “He’s definitely worked his way back up, but if we do fight again, it doesn’t matter,” Miocic also said to ESPN. “The same thing is gonna happen — same result. There’s no difference that’s gonna happen. I’m gonna win and dominate.”
We’ll surely find out what happens when these two cross paths once again. We’ll keep you updated when more news comes out about the heavyweight title match.