LAS VEGAS – UFC president Dana White has wasted no time assigning heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic’s next challenger.
Following Miocic’s (20-3 MMA, 14-3 UFC) successful title defense against Cormier (22-3 MMA, 11-3 UFC) in Saturday’s trilogy bout at UFC 252, light heavyweight champ Jon Jones made noise about moving up to challenge for the belt.
White shut that down, though, saying the next title shot goes to Francis Ngannou, who is riding a four-fight first-round knockout streak.
“Francis is definitely next,” White told reporters, including MMA Junkie, at the UFC 252 post-fight news conference. “I mean, you can’t jump over Francis. Francis has been out there destroying everybody, and if you look at how long ago it was that he got that title shot (against Miocic), he’s worked his way back. It belongs to Francis Ngannou. But yeah, Jon Jones going to heavyweight is very interesting.”
Ngannou (15-3 MMA, 10-2 UFC) suffered a unanimous decision loss to Miocic at UFC 220 in January 2018. He lost a lackluster decision to Derrick Lewis afterward but has since beaten Jairzinho Rozenstruik, Junior Dos Santos, Cain Velasquez and Cutis Blaydes in less than one round combined.
White did not assign a timeline for Miocic vs. Ngannou 2. Miocic, for his part, did not seem in a rush to get back in the cage after his win over Cormier.
“I’m gonna go home, hang out with my wife, especially my daughter, go swim in the pool, and just go enjoy life,” Miocic said.
