Stipe Miocic To Defend UFC Heavyweight Title Against Francis Ngannou At UFC 220
A second title bout is coming next month to UFC 220 as UFC Heavyweight Champion Stipe Miocic is defending the gold against #1 Francis Ngannou. UFC confirmed the news Saturday night during UFC Fight Night Fresno.
Miocic (17-2-0) is makes the third defense of his championship, previously defending it against Junior Dos Santos and Alistair Overeem. Miocic won the UFC Heavyweight Title back at UFC 198 after knocking out then champion Fabricio Werdum in the opening round. Miocic also enters the fight on a five fight winning streak and hasn’t suffered a defeat in over three years.
Ngannou (11-1-0) is currently undefeated under the UFC banner, last defeating Alistair Overeem by knockout at UFC 218. Ngannou has already fought a former UFC Heavyweight Champion, defeating Andrei Arlovski by first round TKO at UFC On Fox 23. Ngannou has yet to see any of his professional MMA fights go the distance and seven of those twelve MMA bouts ended in the first round.
If Miocic were to beat Ngnnou, he would break a UFC Heavyweight division record for most consecutive successful championship defenses. Currently he's tied with Brock Lesnar, Randy Couture and Tim Sylvia with two each.
Also on the show is a UFC Light Heavyweight Championship fight between title holder Daniel Cormier and Volkan Oezdemir.
UFC 220 takes place on Saturday, January 20 from the TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts with Ngannou and Miocic headlining. Fightful is providing live coverage of the event, with a post-show podcast to follow.
