Are Brock Lesnar’s recent flirtations with a UFC return real or just part of the build up for Wrestlemania 34? That’s something we probably won’t have an answer for until after the April 8th event when Lesnar’s WWE contract expires. But if he does come back to the UFC for another run, he’ll have some pretty stiff competition to face … like Francis Ngannou, for example.
“I want Brock, Brock Lesnar,” Ngannou declared on The MMA Hour. “And I heard (boxing heavyweight champ) Anthony Joshua say he’s going to fight in MMA, and if he want to face me, you’re welcome man. We gonna do it both sides, in the Octagon and inside the ring. He’s gonna get me anyway. There are three people who want me, and then who I want. The other three want me. Me? I want Brock.”
Ngannou wants to take out Lesnar to prove his wrestling game is legit.
“I don’t think my problem is wrestling,” Ngannou explained in a follow up interview with MMA Junkie. “I can’t believe my wrestling is bad. I think my wrestling defense is good. I think I can prove it, and maybe not in this fight, but I have had a very good strategy of wrestling defense for my previous fight. I can show that Brock won’t hurt me to show that my wrestling defense is not bad.”
Francis came into his title fight against Stipe Miocic with a ton of hype after finishing all six of his fights in the UFC. But after that five round decision loss to Miocic, a lot of fair weather fans decided the Cameroonian didn’t have the ground skills to stay competitive at the top of the heavyweight division. That opinion has obviously rubbed Ngannou the wrong way.
“People say, ‘Your ground game, your wrestling,’ but I believe I have not the best one, but I have a good one,” he said. “I’ve been showing that for earlier fight. The fact of this [Miocic fight] was the management of my cardio and my endurance. I came into that fight already tired because of a lot of stuff going on.”
Ngannou blames a poorly timed trip back to Europe and endless promotional duties for burning him out before he even stepped into the cage against Miocic. He still managed to fight through the five rounds and stay dangerous the whole time, but the champ kept him so busy defending takedowns and trying to get back up that he never landed one of his patented kill shots.
A fight with Lesnar would undoubtedly see the WWE star try to emulate Miocic’s gameplan, which is what’s so interesting about a potential match up. Brock won his last UFC fight against another striking powerhouse in Mark Hunt by turning the fight into a pure wrestling match. Would he be able to pull it off again against the bigger and stronger Ngannou? One thing is for sure: there’s some very dangerous contenders at heavyweight waiting for Brock Lesnar to cross back over into the UFC. (via MMA Junkie)
