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

It was used to say about him: “Right kick hospital left kick cemetery."  

He actually had a controversial fight two weeks ago against Big Country Nelson.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-8U3hVZsg4

True, he is retired now, but he used to be a killing machine, with his 1 kick know down move he end some crazy matches. But we can keep his fighting style as an example for the next generations. He shows us how a heavyweight should do it.

There is not much to look at now. Mirko is retired now. He has sufferen a stroke few days ago and is unable to train (just to train) for 3-5 months.

Maybe he will do some show matches in the future. But if I were him, I would not even do that, because just a slight punch to the head now can cripple him.

The Cain who lost versus Francis Ngannou was the same Cain who lost vs Werdum, i don't think Cain is or was a good fighter, is pure muscle with a nice ability to receive hits, but not a fighting machine anymore. If we want to learn about good fighters on that category then take a look to mirko crocop

Lesnar was a crowd drawer before, that was when he has this 4 winning streak eliminating big names like Randy Couture, Frank Mir and Shane Carwin. He also defeated Overeem in Round 1 in UFC 141. But things may have changed after his win last UFC 200 with Mark Hunt since his last fight inside the octagon is 2 years ago. If ever he step inside the octagon again, I wan't to see him loose to Cormier. I wan't to see him get disappointed just like when he lost to Frank Mir on UFC 81.

@eaLiTy. Whatever they make it appear to be, the Cain that went in the octagon versus Francis Ngannou was not the Cain that would have won with or without the knee injury. Ring rust is real no matter what anyone believes.

That would be a great match up, two heavyweight amateur wrestlers who did not face each other in their competing time and now they have the opportunity to match their skills in MMA and i consider Cormier to be a better wrestler than Lesnar and he incorporated wrestling well in his MMA fights and can dominate any fighter on the ground.

So now they accept that Cains knee buckled because of the punch  , earlier i heard them saying that his knee buckled and so is the reason he went down, but in the video it looked like Ngannou had a short side upper cut that buckled Cains feet . What ever the situation is, Cain is not healthy to fight right now.

Yes, hasn't seen this video as well, it looks like he is already hurt going into the fight with Francis and that shot he took could have really aggravated it, that's why he just took a knee.

I don't know about the postponement though, the stakes are already high at that time and there is no coming back. He take the risk then no one has to blame but himself.

Interesting video thanks.
So if he already had a problem with the knee before the fight, Cain can only blame himself.
He should have postponed it.

Yes, it looks pretty much like that during the fight and many people in the comments say the same thing.  He should have asked for shifting the fight on another date imo. How could he risk his career like that? On the other hand, maybe he couldn't shift the fight and get the $450,000 salary at the same time. If he needed the money at the moment, I wouldn't blame him at all.

Velasquez already had a bum knee before the fight.  Watch this vid.  Look more closely around 42 secs:  https://twitter.com/Maclifeofficial/status/1096290910130790401

He limped a bit and quit the work out.

This is just another excuse from Cain's camp. Of course we wanted more action from him and rooting for Cain to win, but this kind of freak accident really do happen and it's very unfortunate that we didn't more action. Just man up and not to look for excuses that his fighter lost it already.

Javier Mendez, Cain's coach as a interesting theory,  


https://www.mmamania.com/2019/2/21/18234595/ufc-cain-velasquez-team-now-blaming-illegal-punch-ko-loss-francis-ngannou-phoenix

So basically, he blame the 'illegal' punch that could have trigger Cain's knees to buckled and eventually gave out.

About GSP, he's gonna announce his retirement later today.

Lol, I haven't notice that.

But yeah, would love to see him get bloodied,  . Someone needs to smoke that ass again just for the sake of getting entertained.

^  Rofl.  He doesn't like his face getting hit too.  Notice how he closes his eyes and shakes his head like a baby and his arms flailing when he gets his face hit.  

It's still fun to see him get his ass kicked.  

And I'd like to see an Ngannou vs Miocic rematch as the co main event. 

That could def get more people interested than seeing Lesnar getting his ass kicked again imho.  Lesnar just doesn't offer anything new anymore. 

Daniel Cormier will not fight Cain. Perhaps the story line will be DC will retire and Cain takes over the heavyweight division. Unfortunately we have seen what happened, so it will be DC vs Francis next. But first DC needs to rehab his injuries. Another option will be DC vs Brock as @kenzawak, has pointed out. But depends on how DC recovered, so we're not sure of the timeline yet.

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

Did you really watch the fight? How can you call it a good fight when it ended in a bizarre way? Yes, Francis is more active but it's more of the knee of Cain Velasquez giving out. Yes he was clipped but I don't think it really did a lot of damage. Cain can't protect himself and his knee and the referee stop the fight. It's just sad to see cardio Cain exiting like this and it seems his UFC best days are over.

I was expected on this result since Ngannou is more active compare to Velasquez who left the court two years ago, nevertheless its indeed a good fight. Maybe Ngannou wants this win more compare to Velasquez, luckily my bet is on the right side. Congrats to both of this fighter for a great show, the next fight of Ngannou will be more interesting to me.

An easy win for Ngannou and looks like he really prepared for this fight, Velasquez can do a lot if he was able to depend himself and stand for at least another round. Well, this is just a short playing time but I enjoyed the fight. Hopefully they will face each other again, Velasquez is still a good fighter.

Francis Ngannou clipped him with a good jab and it looked like Caine Velasquez injured his knee and took a good upper cut and finished the fight in the first round, Francis is an animal with real big power and with this fight we never know when Velasquez will be back as i am sure he slipped his knee during this fight and he will take another couple of years until he comes back.

He was having the lineage but he is still raw in MMA but he is a good ground fighter but not championship material right now, he won the fight in the first round via submission but with opponents getting better with good striking then it will be a challenge for him if he did not pick up his standing game.

Ngannou beats Velasquez in 25 secs. Velasquez leg slipped and his knee gave out. Thats just hard luck for him for that to happen so early into the match. Was pretty much a flawless victory for Ngannou. He might be ready to fight again next week..by the looks of things lol. Hope the future hall of fame star Velasques looked just fine during the end at the interview. Hopefully we get to see him fight again soon.

I know, I was only joking hehehe. It was Dana who said that Francis Ngannou hits like a Ford Escort which Cain mocked and said that he was not impressed on the comparison.

Right now, Velazques KO in round 1 @4.50, and round 2 @5.50, not bad. I also have over 2.5 rounds @3.50, which I'm probably gonna take.

those youtube comments lol Seems like the majority of people are expecting a KO from Ngannou in round 1.

A lot of hype around Ngannou vs Velasquez, but we also a few good fights (for instance, Vick vs Felder, and Sterling vs Rivera), anyone planning on going with a parlay?

I should've pulled the trigger on the over at 2.18.  It's at 1.90 just around 18 hours later...  What's the line for 'Velasquez KO in round one' in your bookie?

Anyway, here are the weigh ins.  And Ngannou and Velasquez are looking good! 

UFC Phoenix:  Weigh Ins
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NfhRC-ECwc

Lol, you guys give me some smiles regarding the outcome of the game.  . I thought that the Velasquez vs Ngannou has ended already but it seems I lost my body clock again. Still 3 hours to go and I seen reports that MVP vs Daley is a boring fight because its tactical chess match. Anyways, hope that Cain survived against the power punching Francis.

It's less than 4 hours left till the fight, and it looks like most bettors are regarding Velasquez as a favorite and Ngannou as underdog. Not saying that majority is always right, but this time I think it is. To win the fight, having superhuman endurance is better than having the strongest punch in the world. Or it's not? We'll find out in less than 4 hours. And although the top comment for this video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vNiYDMinQg

reads "Cain doesn’t look the same as he use to.", I root for Velasquez, and I wish him all the best.

No man can 'survive' Ngannou's deadly punches, one hit and it's done.

I would go for the over. I've said it before, I think Cain will stay from Ngannou in the first few rounds then finish him in the later rounds when Ngannou is tired.

Ngannou KO in round 1 @5.00 / Ngannou to win @2.40. I'm tempted, but I'll stick to my guns, don't let me down Cain.

That fight was nuts.

What does everybody think of this fight lasting for just under 1.5 rounds?  The line opened at 1.85 and it's currently at 1.72.  The over is at 2.18.  I'm tempted to go for the over cos I think Cain will be mostly clincing and wrestling.

Cormier giving a preview on the main event. 

Ngannou vs Velasquez Preview
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRYwnUP9K9s

I'm surprised you guys aren't talking about Kron Gracie's debut in the UFC.
He is the son of Rickson and a former Jiu Jitsu world champion. Hi MMA record is 4-0.
Still young also at 30 years old.

I really do not believe this because everyone knows Stipe Miocic has a background in amateur wrestling and boxing before transition to MMA and if someone is fighting for the belt, does anyone neglect ground game entirely in MMA and if Ngannou did that he is not championship caliber, the Cain Velasquez i know is a better wrestler than Miocic so he better prepare this time or else feel the grind.

   
Ended in a no contest as Matt Mitrione busted Sergei's balls in 15 seconds.          
 
Most anticipated fight with MVP going against a legit fighter at last in Daley, if he could win then we will understand his levels, i have a small parlay on MVP and Vitaly and Cro Cop as he looks huge in Bellator now, juice allowed because there is no testing i guess.

Not sure if anyone has beat him yet but Francis Ngannou has/had the world record for the hardest punch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LC_t7h1JTls

Valerie Loureda   vs.   Colby Fletcher
https://twitter.com/BellatorMMA/status/1096482379655536643
I dont see a betting line for this female match maybe because it is supposed to be so 1 sided.
But the debuting 20 year old model should win with no problem.

We all know that Francis Ngannou is a knockout artist. 5 of his fights ended on a first round stopage, the other 2 are second round. Cain needs to work on his cardio to last up to the last round since Ngannou's last 2 losses are due to decision and he doesn't throw too many punches. He is waiting for the right time for the kill. That's why on his 2 losses if we look at the number of punches thrown, his percentage is very low.

It looks like every UFC fight fans is really hype around the come back of Cain. I can feel that fighting fans wants to see the old Cain back in the Octagon, but we can't discounted the fact that Ngannou has one punch knock-out, can Cain's chin hold up if Francis hits him?

@TheNewAnon135246. No hehehe. He only hits like a Ford Escort according to Dana.

In any case, we do not know what kind of Cain is going in the octagon tomorrow. It might also be the no cardio version that fought Fabricio Werdum.

Really looking forward to this match. Velasquez has (or had) crazy stamina for a heavyweight so he might be able to wear down Ngannou. Ngannou hits like a f*cking freight train so all he needs is 1 opening.

I remember the Velasquez fight VS Fabricio Werdum, on that fight Werdum was the underdog and makes me win some nice cash  If i'm not wrong odds were like x4.5 if werdum wins at that time.

So, this time i will bet against Cain again, as we know, old dogs don't learn new tricks.

Bellator has some interesting match ups thats not a surprise.
My only Bellator play will be on Austin Vanderford 1.19.
Not because I think hes anything special, and not because I see any huge value.
But only because he is Mr. Page VanZant and Im incredibly jealous of this man!

The lines are moving towards Ngannou now as we move closer to the event.  I remember it opened around 2.75 or so...  It's at around 2.35 the last time I looked a couple of hours ago and could still go down close to 2.15 - 2.20 imo.  It could mean the sharks are with Ngannou.

Yeah, Velasquez, with his insane cardio, might just try to wear out Ngannou (just like Miocic), avoid any action in the first few rounds, and then to go for the takedown in the later rounds.

I'm kinda expecting the exact same outcome next sunday (if everything goes well for Cain), but I still feel a bit of uncertainty because we simply don't know how 'rusty' Velasquez is right now 

Francis Ngannou may have won his last fight with Blaydes via TKO last November 2018 but looking at his last 2 fights before that he lost via decision to lewis and Miocic. This makes me think that he is the kind of fighter who needs to finish his opponent or else he might loose  if it with be judged by 3 guys outside the octagon. His last fight with Miocic, he is out numbered in terms of strikes, out of 262 puches thrown, only 26% landed while Miocic made 488 punches and landed 82% of them.

Agreed. However, it might be better to assume that Francis Ngannou can or will also connect his punches in the 1st and 2nd rounds. The problem would now be how strong is Cain's chin?

Also, we do not know what kind of Cain is going inside the octagon. It might be the weak and rusty model hehehe.

Hopefully cAIN doesnt get injured before this fight.  Hes been out 1.5 years so dont know his shape.

https://twitter.com/MMAFighting/status/1095460882983743488
Remember when Dana White compared Francis Ngannou's punching power to being hit by a Ford Escort? @cainmma wasn't impressed…
"Ford Escorts suck. They're weak."

Let's not forget that Francis Ngannou knock the hell out of Alistair Overeem's chin with his uppercut in the first two minutes of the first round. All of his wins are either via KO or submission during the first or second round and all his losses came from UDs which means that this guy is really a hunter and he would do whatever is takes to finish the fight early. I don't think that Cain Velasquez could handle him pretty well specially that he is coming out from retirement,  we really don't know what his fight conditions are if he has the stamina to keep up with Ngannou.

Those are my thoughts too. Velasquez can definitely do better in the long run. But I think we have to keep in mind that Ngannou has the hardest punch ever recorded

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6dblwcTi3Q

And those are not just some units. We can see from watching his fights that he's able to knock out his opponent with a single punch.

My prediction is, if Velasquez will manage to evade Ngannou's punches during the first couple of rounds, he'll win the fight.

We will never know until the game is over, Cain comeback give fans hope for regaining his title we ain't sure how well he's condition right now, but a fighter always have a heart and lust to win not unless there's other things inside his minds and the focus is not that much, but also I'm  eyeing for his win.

Watch this vid.  Vintage Velasquez vs big Nog...  Watch how quick Velasquez is.  I mean even if he isn't that good anymore but still that quick?  Ngannou is in trouble.  Big trouble.

And Velasquez prolly still has the cardio to last the whole 5 rounds.  Ngannou really doesn't.

UFC Phoenix Free Fight:  Cain Velasquez vs Minotauro Nogueira
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7F3jlvGXEE

Not only Barao but most of the notable Brazilian like Anderson and Wanderlai Silva. 

Yes, it's going to be interesting to see how Cain will be on his comeback fight. He is out for like two years and Francis is not a push over fighter, so this is a dangerous fight for him. I'm sure he is the sentimental favourites to win, but I wouldn't be surprised if Ngannou pulls a sort of upset here.

He is not going to be the same. Aside from injuries and having a 2 year of hiatus, age will play a role here as well. Francis Ngannou is 4 years younger than Cain Velasquez. The last fight of Francis Ngannou is just last November 2018. That means Francis Ngannou is coming out fresh from a recent victory but this fight is not going to be a walk in the park for both fighters.

That is correct, he used to be the best heavyweight, but injuries has taken its toll on his body and I think it's more of a mental game for Cain here. Perhaps he has healed already physically, but I'm sure there are lot of questions and doubts on his mind prior to the fight.

But as fans we wanted him to return and reclaim the belt, but I seriously doubt that after being out for two years, he will still be the same Cain Velasquez that we used to know.

Agreed that Cain is the best heavyweight, however he has been out of the octagon for 2 years. How would we know that he would be the same Cain Velasquez? Also, he has been suffering with reoccuring injuries in all of his career in the UFC.

From 2008 to 2010, Cain Velasquez is unstoppable, from Kongo, Noguiera to Lesnar, he beat them all until he faced Dos Santos in 2011 and it took 1 year to get back to Dos Santos and claim a win. He beat Dos Santos twice. However, Cain Velasquez has been out of the octagon since 2016. His last fight with Browne ended in a 1st round TKO. I don't know if he is still as dangerous as he is back when he is unstoppable 2008 to 2010 and last 2016. He should have  at least 1 or 2 fights ahead of this big event to condition his body after a 2 years of sabbatical.

Yes baby Yes! I'm hoping for the same thing as well . I want a bloody and brutal 5 round fight from them, I already get bored in "one shot, one kill" type of fights. However, I don't think they would maintain the energy 'til the end simply because Ngannou is not a fighter that could last long and Velasques on the other hand got a very long break so I guess his body is not the same as before.

Nonetheless, I'm still very excited for their fight. They got their own strengths so it's very hard to predict who's gonna win but I'm a Velasquez fan so I'll go for him.

I'm French but I'll be rooting for Velasquez who's clearly a better fighter. I just hope he's back for good, it could really make things interesting in the heavies.
I have nothing against Ngannou but he needs a reality check, he's far from being one of the top fighters and has to work a lot more. He's like many heavyweights, he lacks endurance and is not complete enough.

Barao was once considered the pound for pound king as he was unstoppable and one loss and most importantly the introduction of USADA was during that time and we have seen many fighters going down the drains after that.   Velasquez is fighting after a long time and i am sure after the fight with Ngannou he will take a couple of years off to heal his injuries.  

If that happens i really think that Velasquez will retire from the sports as he will not be able to walk if he gets injured like that.

Well hopefully i see another cain like the brock lesnar fight. Ngannou's striking should be his advantage but i think cain is one of the most well rounded heavyweights ever to enter the octagon. Though it's a question if he can be the old cain since i'm seeing seasoned vets get beaten quite often recently.

This is going to be a very interesting fight. They're both great heavyweight fighters, but in different ways. Ngannou is very good with his upper-cuts and fast knockouts, but, in my opinion, he quickly loses his energy, in case his attacks were ineffective. Velasquez, on the contrary, may appear in a 3rd round like he's only starting to fight. They say about Cain Velasquez that he has superhuman endurance, and rightly so.

In short, if Ngannou will not win via knockout in the 1st round, I think there are big chances of him losing to Velasquez later.

Interesting to see Barao's name on the list. He went 2-5 after the lost to TJ Dillashaw 5 years ago and it looks like he is already past his prime.

Cain Velasquez is one of my favorite fighter and I do hope that he beat Francis Ngannou so that he can gain his confidence back. Although there is the question of ring rust and Francis explosive power, but if Cain can stay and get past the first round and Francis get tired after that and Cain uses his wrestling skills then Cain's takes it.

Date: Sunday, February 17
Preliminary Card (ESPN+): 22:30 BCT / 2:30pm PST / 5:30pm EST
Preliminary Card (ESPN): 00:00 BCT / 4pm PST / 7pm EST
Main Card (ESPN): 2:00 BCT / 6pm PST / 9pm EST
Live Streams: http://www.fìrstrow.eu/




Main Card (ESPN)

Francis Ngannou (12-3) vs. Cain Velasquez (14-2) (Heavyweight)
James Vick (13-2) vs. Paul Felder (15-4) (Lightweight)
Cortney Casey (8-6) vs. Cynthia Calvillo (7-1) (Women's Strawweight)
Alex Caceres (14-11) vs. Kron Gracie (4-0) (Featherweight)
Vicente Luque (14-6-1) vs. Bryan Barberena (14-5) (Welterweight)
Andre Fili (18-6) vs. Myles Jury (17-3) (Featherweight)

Preliminary Card (ESPN)

Jimmie Rivera (22-2) vs. Aljamain Sterling (16-3) (Bantamweight)
Benito Lopez (9-0) vs. Manny Bermudez (13-0) (Bantamweight)
Ashlee Evans-Smith (6-3) vs. Andrea Lee (9-2) (Women's Flyweight)   
Scott Holtzman (12-2) vs. Nik Lentz (29-9-2) (Lightweight)

Preliminary Card (ESPN+)

Renan Barao (34-7) vs. Luke Sanders (12-3) (Bantamweight)
Jessica Penne (12-5) vs. Jodie Esquibel (6-4) (Women's Strawweight)   
Aleksandra Albu (3-0) vs. Emily Whitmire (3-2) (Women's Strawweight)