Stipe Miocic: There Went The Boom

What a depressing sports weekend this past one was, wasn’t it?

I mean, Tom Brady is in the Super Bowl? Again? But he was just there. The man’s already won 5 of them. How many more does he need?

Wait, that’s not his secret to maintaining his looks, is it? He’s not some sort of mythological demon who stays young by making defenses look foolish and by consuming the tears of sports fans hoping for something different for once, is he?

I wouldn’t label myself in the hater camp, although there may be some crossover. I was just hoping for something different than the same teams in the Big Game every single year. I was excited at the idea of the Jacksonville Jaguars making it, especially after getting the job done against Pittsburgh the week before. How cool would it have been to see a running back with as much potential as Leonard Fournette and a quarterback with as silly a name as Blake Bortles topple Big Ben and Tommy Boy all in the same postseason run?

Oh well. At least the Eagles will give Brady a good run for his money.

What’s that? Wentz is still out? Crap.

I should submit that bit to Bleacher Report. I bet they could use some sports writers who actually know how to write.

So what does that have to do with MMA? Not much, but I’ll admit the feeling I had on Sunday wasn’t wholly different from the feeling I felt Saturday night after watching one of the biggest title hopefuls in the UFC, both figuratively and literally, get taken down and worn out by the man who can now call himself the most successful UFC Heavyweight Champion ever, assuming that’s really saying much.

Did we fall victim to the hype train that was created with the emergence of Francis Ngannou into the top of the rankings and title contention? Sure we did. He carried a six fight win streak into his main event title shot against champion Stipe Miocic at UFC 220 on Saturday night, including a destruction of former champ Andrei Arlovski and an even more destructive destruction of former title challenger Alistair Overeem.

Admittedly, I was impressed by the Arlovski stoppage but I wasn’t screaming title fight after it. Maybe if it was 2006 I would have said that but not in 2017. Still, it showed the raw power he had and the danger he presented if taken as the threat he is.

For as good as the Overeem win was, it’s easy to say it came as a result of one fighter not taking his opponent all that seriously, which is something that Overeem has done to disastrous results on numerous occasions. He’s definitely the type of fighter who would recognize how powerful Ngannou’s hands are and still decide that the best way to beat him is to stand in front of him and strike with him.

It was this thinking that led to the highlight of UFC 218 and the best knockout of last year, when Ngannou turned Overeem into a game of Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots and uppercutted his soul into the upper balcony.

We’ve seen heavyweights with that kind of power before. Sometimes it’s just one aspect of the skillset of a future champion (Cain Velasquez, Junior dos Santos) and sometimes it’s all a fighter’s got (Shane Carwin, Mark Hunt).

For as brutal as Ngannou’s punches are, we’d yet to see him face a fighter with a strong wrestling pedigree, which Miocic has. We’d also never seen him let a fight go to decision, so we didn’t know if he could go three rounds, let alone five. Could he pump enough oxygen into those massive muscles to last 25 minutes with the champ?

Well, the good news is he lasted all 25 minutes. The bad news is he got dominated from start to finish. It wasn’t domination in the sense that anyone was fearing for Francis’s life but once Stipe landed his first takedown, it was clear that Ngannou, for as much as he’s learned in the four years that he’s trained in MMA, still has a lot more to learn.

Wrestling was the name of this game, as Miocic successfully used his to bully Ngannou up against the cage and down to the canvas. It didn’t help Francis that he gassed out within the first 30 seconds but, by Round 5, you could have probably blown on him and he would have tumbled over. It was disheartening to see Ngannou crumble like that, but it did prove that, without a doubt, the better man won.

That’s a statement I’m sure the UFC wouldn’t agree with.

While I’ve shared my thoughts on UFC’s ability to promote its fighters (or inability – ZING!) in the past, it’s safe to say that all the UFC’s promotional efforts were put towards introducing Ngannou as the best thing since sliced Lesnar.

He wasn’t just a fighter. He was this monolith of a man, a mountain of raw power and aggression. He had the look of a fighter who should be champion. He had a quiet and humble personality that radiated positivity and was a joy to listen to in interviews. He had not just a country behind him but an entire continent.

I mean, how cool would it have been to witness the crowning of the first African champion in the UFC? That would have been amazing.

But nope. Those plans were dashed by Miocic, a man who still finds humor in hanging up on his wife while in the car. A man who is just as enthusiastic about playing with a pellet gun as he is training to defend his title. A man who looks like a mutated Pee Wee Herman whenever he puts on a suit.

A man who, more importantly to the UFC, is willing to sit out and not fight unless he feels he’s getting fairly compensated for his work inside the cage.

And I like Stipe. I really do. I thought his own run up to the title was a fun one. I also respect him as one of the few fighters who recognizes his status and is going to make sure that, in a sport where everyone is severely underpaid save a McGregor or two, he gets his piece.

I greatly respect everything he has done and everything he accomplished on Saturday by becoming the first heavyweight champion in UFC history to defend the title three straight times.

Still though, wouldn’t it have been so wild to see Ngannou crowned champion, to see that Boston crowd explode to see something new, something exciting? Just like it would have been wild to see the Lombardi Trophy being raised by Case friggin’ Keenum? How wild that would have been…

Make my checks out to “Cash,” Bleacher Report. I assume it’s already in the mail. Thanks.

Evan Zivin has been writing for 411 MMA since May of 2013. Evan loves the sport, and likes to takes a lighthearted look at the world of MMA in his writing…usually.