Francis Ngannou: I learned more at UFC 220 than in four years of MMA

By: Steven Marrocco and Matt Erickson | January 21, 2018 10:30 am

BOSTON – As painful as it was to lose a shot at the UFC heavyweight title, Francis Ngannou is resolved not to let his setback against Stipe Miocic define him.

“I’ve been in this sport only four years, and I know I’ll keep learning and improving,” Ngannou (11-2 MMA, 6-1 UFC) told MMAjunkie after his unanimous decision loss to Miocic (18-2 MMA, 12-2 UFC) in the pay-per-view headliner of UFC 220, which took pace Saturday at TD Garden in Boston. “What happened tonight was the last step for me to learn about this sport, because it’s the only thing I’ve never faced – a five-round fight, and how to deal with it. I made a mistake, and that will not happen again.”

Ngannou admitted he punched himself out in the first two rounds of the fight, leaving himself little energy to resist after Miocic survived his onslaught and shifted to a grappling strategy.

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“I came here today to win the fight,” he said. “I just discovered a new part (about fighting) that I was ignorant about.”

Although Ngannou still thought he could knock out Miocic heading into championship rounds, his body wouldn’t respond.

“The problem is I underestimated my opponent, and I went too hard in the first round, and he was tougher than I thought,” he said. “So (Miocic) resisted, and he put together a better game plan than me.”

Ngannou brushed off the idea that a hard weight cut was one of the culprits behind his performance. He also dismissed the idea of moving to a different camp after preparing for the fight at the UFC Performance Institute and in his adopted home country of France.

After rocketing to a UFC title shot and getting brought back to earth, Ngannou’s next move is to shore up the weakness that exposed him inside the octagon. Then he’ll try again for the title.

“I’m going to keep improving and come back stronger than I was,” he said. “I learned more (at UFC 229) than I did in the past four years.”

For complete coverage of UFC 220 , check out the UFC Events section of the site.