Ngannou proves he’s the real deal in UFC
Dana White has this thing he does when he’s asked about how the UFC will survive when one of their biggest stars moves on.
He’ll smile and shake his head and then remind everyone that people asked the exact same thing when Chuck Liddell and Tito Ortiz and Ken Shamrock and Brock Lesnar all moved on. Plenty of people were wondering how the UFC would survive in the post-Ronda Rousey, postConor McGregor era.
On Saturday at UFC 218, we might have got our answer. And that answer is Francis Ngannou.
Here are a few highlights:
Until Saturday night, nobody really knew whether Ngannou was the real deal. He’d never beaten a truly elite opponent, and Alistair Overeem was a big test.
Ngannou responded by knocking Overeem out with a left uppercut that seemed to send the Dutch kickboxer’s head right out of the earth’s orbit.
Ngannou then showed up to the post-fight news conference in traditional African attire and spoke eloquently about the Cameroonian immigrants who are being enslaved in Libya right now.
With a backstory that includes fleeing Cameroon to live on the streets of Paris, Ngannou should be an easy sell for the UFC.
With speed and power that can put anyone to sleep, he might just be champion after he faces Stipe Miocic in his next fight. Ngannou might just be the next generation superstar the UFC has been waiting for.
Unlike Ngannou, Max Holloway didn’t have anything to prove on Saturday night.
He’s already the 145-pound champion and carried an 11-fight win streak into the UFC 218 main event against Jose Aldo.
But his performance against the longtime featherweight champ was notable anyway.
Just like Holloway did the first time he beat Aldo, the 25-year-old allowed Aldo to dictate the pace early in the fight. Aldo hit him with some good shots, but Holloway kept fighting his fight.
By midway through the third round, it was painfully obvious that Holloway wasn’t losing, and he finished the fight with a vicious barrage of punches on the ground.
The Hawaiian has asserted himself as his generation’s dominant featherweight, and fans should expect him to have a long reign as the 145-pound king.
It’s truly a shame that so many fans only came to know Jose Aldo over the last couple of years, when he was getting relentless mocked — and then knocked out cold — by McGregor and then thoroughly beaten twice by Holloway.
This is one of the greatest fighters of all time and a guy who seemed all but unbeatable for the better part of a decade.
On Saturday night, though, his time at the top officially ended.
Aldo will go into the UFC Hall of Fame and will always be a legend in Brazil, but he’s just not on the same level as Holloway, and hopefully he can accept that.
Are there big fights in Aldo’s future? Probably, but there shouldn’t be title fights.
Henry Cejudo would have been totally justified if he’d called out flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson on Saturday night after he beat Sergio Pettis.
That’s not how Cejudo played things, though.
The Olympic wrestling gold medallist acknowledged that he’d love a second crack at fighting for the title, but admitted that he understood if the UFC wanted to promote a superfight between Johnson and bantamweight champion T.J. Dillashaw instead.
White all but confirmed that fight was booked in the post-fight news conference, so Cejudo will have to wait. But by not raising a fuss, he probably got himself in the boss’s good books.
Cejudo’s time will come, but good on him for recognizing that the best thing for the flyweight division is if he waits a while.
Did UFC 218 get the world talking the way the promotion’s previous pay-per-view did a month ago?
No, but UFC 217 in New York City was a once-in-a-generation card.
Saturday night was never going to be that. It was a strong card with the potential to get people talking about the next generation.
On that level, it delivered.