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When examining the landscape of the heavyweight division,
one clear contender stands out above the rest following Stipe
Miocic’s victory over Daniel
Cormier in the UFC 252 headliner.
That, of course, is knockout artist Francis
Ngannou, whose current four-bout winning streak includes
first-round finishes of Curtis
Blaydes, Cain
Velasquez, Junior dos
Santos and Jairzinho
Rozenstruik. “The Predator” challenged for heavyweight gold in
January 2018, when he dropped a five-round verdict to Miocic at UFC
220.
While Ngannou seems to make the most sense as the next challenger
for Miocic, the possibility of a Jon Jones jump
to heavyweight still looms large over the rest of the division.
Jones was active on Twitter throughout the UFC 252 main event and
at its conclusion
seemed to imply that a move was imminent.
Even if Jones makes the leap after years of teasing such a move,
UFC president Dana White indicated that Ngannou will remain the
rightful No. 1 contender.
“Francis is definitely next,” White said at Saturday’s post-fight
press conference. “I mean, you can’t jump over Francis. Francis has
been out there destroying everybody, and if you look at how long
ago it was that he got that title shot, he’s worked his way back.
It belongs to Francis
Ngannou.
“But yeah, Jon Jones
going to heavyweight is very interesting.”
Miocic, meanwhile, plans on taking some time off after his latest
triumph. But once it comes time to get back to work, he doesn’t
really have a preference in opponent.
“I’ll fight anyone,” he said. “I don’t care. I love what I do.”