Topic: UFC on ESPN 1: Ngannou vs Velasquez Prediction and Info Thread - page 2. (Read 729 times)

Well, I'd say most people would agree that if not the knee incident, Velasquez would most probably win the fight. Look at him at the press conference right after the fight. He's not worn down at all, and that's after several hard punches he received being on the ground. I think, it would be great if they arranged another Ngannou vs Velasquez fight in a month or two.

I'd like to see Cormier kick Lesnar's ass.

DC isnt going to be fighting Francis- per Dana White.   DC is still injured

Dana White says the UFC has a title fight lined up for Daniel Cormier, not Francis Ngannou
https://www.mmafighting.com/2019/2/18/18229119/morning-report-dana-white-the-ufc-has-a-title-fight-lined-up-for-daniel-cormier-not-francis-ngannou

On Sunday night, Francis Ngannou made quick work of Cain Velasquez, knocking out the former two-time UFC heavyweight champion in just 26 seconds at UFC Phoenix. After the biggest win of his career, Ngannou began lobbying for a title shot, saying that heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier “should come to avenge his teammate.” Unfortunately for Ngannou, it doesn’t look like that will be in the cards for him.

Speaking with ESPN after the fight, UFC President Dana White revealed that the UFC already has an opponent lined up Cormier.

“Well yeah, Francis is there,” White said. “Cormier’s hurt right now and we have another fight lined up for Cormier first so, we’ll see how this whole thing plays out.”

When Cormier won the title at UFC 226, a superfight with Brock Lesnar was immediately teased. However, despite Lesnar rejoining USADA in July, there has been little discussion about his impending return, leaving even Cormier to wonder if the fight with happen. Meanwhile, Cormier has been dealing with injuries since his heavyweight title defense against Derrick Lewis at UFC 230, leaving who is is fighting next completely up in the air and Dana White did not care to illuminate either.

“[Cormier] is not healthy yet so I would never announce a fight without it being done,” White said when questioned about the opponent for Cormier. “It makes no sense. I don’t even know when Cormier’s gonna be ready.”

Cormier is currently sidelined with a back injury and just last week announced that he would be pushing back his planned retirement date while he recovers.

I also have this thought that what if Cain wins against Ngannou last Sunday? Will DC fight his friend for the heavyweight belt?

I reckon Dana might have a new storyboard from Cain's unlucky conclusion. Francis Ngannou versus Daniel Cormier, the revenge for Cain.

Cain and Daniel are close friends and training partners in the American Kickboxing Academy. Francis wants his next fight to be for the championship. Daniel wants to avenge his friend. Dana is already counting how much pay per views he can sell hehehehehe.

I have the same thought as you that Cain Velasquez unluckily slipped that made him lose the fight on but after watching the replay over and over again I saw that Ngannou landed several punches in his head when he was pushed to the corner and that I think made him unconscious for a second which made his legs slip. Also Jason Herzog gave Cain time to recover but he had not chance to do so when he chose to turn his back on Ngannou. And it seems like I was right with my prediction on choosing Ngannou in this fight.

It was not an easy money before the fight, i had my doubts only because Velasquez is coming back after a long lay back and it is not that easy to take the big Ngannou down from the start, the reason i had a doubt with Ngannou is only because of their great match up between Derrick Lewis which ended up as the least strikes thrown in the history of UFC. You cannot judge Velasquez by the time he spent inside the cage now, one more fight and then we can judge whether he has to stop fighting.

I watched the Bellator 216 fights.

The Kongo fight was disappointing. He didn't do much and didn't deserve to win this one (unanimous decision). But I guess they need a contender for Bader (I'm French so there's no subjectivity in what I'm saying).

Cro Cop vs. Big Country Nelson was tight. I had Nelson winning... and they gave it to Cro Cop lol.

MVP vs. Daley was boooring in the first round and got me really worried at first. Watching two guys walk around the octagon forever is not what I wanna see in a fight. The boos from the crowd were well deserved. Then it got much better and the fight became very tactical (Daley trying to go to the ground and MVP trying to strike). Daley was more active but the fight was close and MVP took some good shots, especially in the 4th and 5th where I believe he won the fight.

Anyway, it's always fun to watch some of those "older", sometimes legendary fighters even if their age definitely shows.

At the top of the top obviously !  

Yeah! But well, that was a clean fight so who are we to complain? What ever reason why Velazquez got beaten up whether because of a hard punch or a knee injury, one thing is for sure, Ngannou didn't cheat in order to win so he absolutely deserve a respect
Me too because I'm already bored of one punch KOs. For me it's more exciting to watch on how fighters doing various techniques to make their opponent tap out (sounds like a sadist but I don't mean it) and my favorites among them are twister, guillotine and arm lock.
Hey, Where's Royce Gracie and St. Pierre? Lol just kidding, I respect your taste .

Well technically, it only knocked him down (and that's if the uppercut really touched him) and the knee issue prevented him from defending himself which is why the ref stopped the fight.
Had the knee not given out, the fight might have gone on. We'll never know.

Yesterday I watched a slow motion video of the fight, which has been deleted by now, where they were saying that knee gave out on Velasquez before the uppercut. They were so convincing that I believed them, especially after watching that Velasquez was saying the same thing at the post-fight press conference. But now, after rewatching the fight several times, and after watching this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T90t16TM2TI&t


I agree with you, it was the uppercut that knocked him out.

Oh well, Dana White wanted to bring the real "heavy weight' division again, sadly, it back fired as Cain was just a his former self.

I don't know, for me Cain will have to undergo a lot, physically and mentally to be able to come back again and I'm not seeing it in the next 2-3 years.

This fight was a fluke and hopefully the UFC doesnt give Cardio Cain the spotlight anytime soon.
He always seems to blow it on the biggest stages- first vs JDS and now this.
Injuries over the years ruined this mans chances at amounting to greatness.

Fuck I hate it when a fight ends like that. Now everybody's gonna praise Ngannou and trash Velasquez when there was actually no fight.
Velasquez deserves better than this.


I'm a big fan of the "ground fighting" era, the one with the Gracies, Shamrocks...and I for one believe that if MMA evolved that way it's because everything was done for it (no time limits, weight categories, striking rules...). For me the best fighters are still the ones that fight like Couture, Khabib (different from Couture but still a ground fighter), not like McGregor, Liddell... so yeah I believe Kron can do well in the UFC. 5 MMA fights, 5 submissions. It's just a shame that his first UFC fight was against a very average fighter.

I told you guys Ngannou was the easy money, still can't believe he was the underdog. Velasques was bumped by UFC but his time is over, he isn't a good fighter anymore. #SadButTrue

Now let's wait another 3 years for the next Velasquez fight.

^  He's saying he didn't eat an uppercut that buckled his knee?  Lol.  I think he needs to watch the replay.

Anyway some great fights in the event.  Luque vs Barbarena, Gracie vs Caceres and Vick vs Felder were really great fights.  Looking forward to see more of Kron Gracie.  I hope he gets a crack vs somebody at the top 10 soon.

I too was rooting for Velasquez. It's a great pity that this freak accident happened to him in the very beginning of the fight. Nobody is immune to accidents, but we always wish they don't happen to people we root for.

"It was just a knee, yeah. I mean, he didn't even like touch me" - says Cain Velasquez at the Post-Fight Press Conference, and I believe him. I think Velasquez deserves a refight.

Honestly, I was very shocked not only of the results (since I expect Velazquez to win) but also on how fast it ends. 26 secs, Ngannou just take 26 secs. to knock him out! :O. Actually, at first I thought that he get hurt on the counter punch but after the camera focused on Velasquez' knee it's pretty obvious that there's something wrong — his left knee dislocated I think. Knowing this, I'm a little bit upset because i can see in Velasquz' eyes that he can still fight but not allowed anymore because of the injury .
I just wonder why the judges take it as a knockout and not a technical knockout, hmm. For me that was a bad decision.

Here is Velasquez's post fight interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9zEqbClurE

He explains what happened to his knee. I love him as a fighter, he's such a humble guy. I really hope Dana will give him a rematch against Ngannou.

EDIT: Here is a better video showing that Ngannou didn't even properly hit him. You can clearly see he injured his knee: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqy5cvLKymk&feature=youtu.be