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UFC 260 was live tonight from Las Vegas at the APEX Center. The feature was a headline heavyweight title fight that saw Stipe Miocic lose his UFC Heavyweight Championship by second round KO to Francis Ngannou in what was a lopsided bout.
Miocic showed a tremendous chin in the first round taking a few heavy blows from the challenger. He also failed to take down Ngannou. Stipe only landed 6 considerable shots, all of them from nice inside leg kicks.
Francis Ngannou got it done in the second round as he caught Stipe early and often before the iron chin of Miocic finally gave out. Stipe had a small opening, rushed in, and got caught. Ngannou showed patience, poise and power and will now hold Championship Gold for the first time in his UFC career.
So, what is next for the new champ? The deserved rematch and trilogy fight with Stipe? The rematch of his other only loss to Derrick Lewis? Or the dream fight with Jonny Bones Jones? If the UFC does what is right, it would be the trilogy, but my guess is that they chase the money and try to seal the deal with Jones this week. Look for that fight to take place in July in front of a packed crowd in Las Vegas or somewhere in Florida.
The undercard saw two finishes as Marc-Andre Barriault TKO’d Abu Azaitar with only four seconds in the fight to open the night. Elsewhere, the undercard would wrap up with Alonzo Menifield choking out Fabio Cherant just 1:11 into the fight.
Jamie Mularkey wasted no time starting the main card with instant fireworks with a vicious left hook to put Khama Worthy right out. It only took 46 seconds for Mularkey to fake with his right, and land the brutal left. He breaks his two fight UFC losing streak.
Miranda Maverick overcame a dicey second round to dominate Gillian Robertson on the ground in the third to seal the unanimous decision victory. I personally had it 30-27, but there were moments that could have went either way in the second. Rounds 1 and 3 there were no questions about it as Maverick passed a huge UFC test with an excellent ground attack.
Sean O’Malley learned from a first-round mistake where he didn’t take advantage of an opening to put Thomas Almedia away late into the third. O’Malley was too worried about winning by “walk off” and it almost cost him as he had to endure further rounds of shots instead of putting Almedia away in the first when he could. O’Malley is very talented, but he needs to remained focused on winning, not winning by style, but just flat out winning and moving on to bigger fights.
Vicente Luque had zero problems continuing the epic slide of once UFC Welterweight Champion Tyron Woodley. Luque appeared to have Woodley out on his feet with a barrage of shots, before taking him down and choking him out. Woodley has now lost 4 straight and appears to be completely lost.
