By The UFC has been busy to say the least. With the recent drama involving Dana White’s comments confirming the matchup for the lightweight title between interim champion Tony Ferguson and the dominant challenger coming off a mauling of Edson Barboza, Khabib Nurmagomedov, that will take place at UFC 223. Conor McGregor will be stripped of the lightweight title after having not fought in the cage in over a year. Additionally, the featherweight title is up for grabs between Max Holloway and Frankie Edgar at UFC 222. New news is coming out of the UFC every day and it’s all great. They’re gunning for a strong start to 2018, and I love it. Before we get too excited about these amazing matchups, we have to realize their is an incredible card taking place at UFC 220 in Boston, this Saturday on January 20th. The heavyweight and light heavyweight titles are on the line.
Stipe Miocic, the baddest man on the planet, puts his heavyweight title on the line against Francis Ngannou, the man with the strongest punch in recorded history. Miocic is looking to cement his position as the best heavyweight of all time. He’s beaten The who’s who of the UFC’s biggest fighters. He has knocked out Alistair Overeem, Junior Dos Santos, Andrei Arlovski, Fabricio Werdum (whom he won the title from), Mark hunt and beaten Gabriel Gonzaga and Roy Nelson vis decision. Honestly, there’s nobody left for him to beat other than Ngannou (unless a healthy Cain Velasquez comes back). Ngannou is the definition of a savage. In his last fight he knocked out Alistair Overeem, with one of the most vicious left hands I have ever seen. If you haven’t seen the video, stop reading this article and look it up right now. Miocic is coming off five straight KO wins, Ngannou is coming off of ten straight finishes, seven of which are from knockouts. This fight is not going five rounds, I can tell you that right now. Ngannou is bigger and hits harder, Miocic has beaten much better opponents and hits pretty damn hard too. Ngannou can hit Miocic with one clean shot, and it’s goodnight Mr. Miocic. Miocic has the one punch power too, but not to that extent. The thing Miocic has going for him is that he is much leaner and has very good wrestling ability, even though he doesn’t use it that often. The best shot the champ has is to survive the first two rounds and then shoot and wear him down. Utilize the leg kicks, work the body in the clinch and when he’s tired, work for the ground and pound. If Miocic wins, he’s the greatest ever at heavyweight. If Cain Velasquez comes back healthy and Miocic wins that fight, it’s not even a conversation anymore. However, its hard to be optimistic for the champ in this one. I think Ngannou just has too much power and puts him to sleep early just like he did with Overeem.
The matchup that was supposed to headline the card is one that a lot of people aren’t that excited to watch. Im going to say what everyone is thinking, the light heavyweight division just isn’t that exciting anymore without Jon Jones. Daniel Cormier is the best light heavyweight in the world not named Jones and it’s highly improbable that anyone will be able to beat him. The biggest name in the division, other than DC and Jones, is Alexander Gustaffson, who he isn’t even fighting. Volkan Oezdemir is his opponent and to be fair, he’s beaten everyone the UFC has put in front of him. He beat Jimi Manuwa, Misha Cirkunov, and Ovince Saint Preux. Those three are all strikers. You know who’s a good striker but one of the best wrestlers in UFC history? Daniel Cormier. Cormier has fought everyone in his career and people forget that in his second fight with Jones, he had him reeling before getting caught with the shot that rocked him. DC isn’t going to be out striked and for damn sure won’t be out wrestled. The fight is going to the ground and DC is just going to smother him and get the submission.
UFC 220 goes on live Saturday night on PPV and I promise you, you won’t want to miss it.
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