Coming off two back-to-back losses against Stipe Miocic and Derrick Lewis respectively, UFC Heavyweight upstart Francis Ngannou needed to secure a very crucial win against Curtis Blaydes at tonight's UFC Fight Night 141 in Beijing, China.
Blaydes, who himself was coming off two major wins over Mark Hunt and Aleister Overeem, looked to once again shock the entire MMA World by pulling off another major win at the Cadillac Arena.
Ngannou started off the fight charging in and landed an early leg kick before connecting with a huge right hand that pretty much came over the top and had Blaydes down momentarily. Despite being badly hurt, Blaydes tried to recover and get up but Ngannou quickly capitalized on the momentum and started landing massive punches, with Blaydes trying to cover it up.
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Blaydes once again gets dropped and the referee quickly jumps in to stop the fight within the first 44 seconds of the very first round and despite the Blaydes trying to get back to his feet and protesting the stoppage, the fight was pretty much done for, as witnessed a clinical performance from Francis Ngannou.
This performance is something Ngannou is surely going to revealed about and pretty much marked the return of the Cameroonian superstar, who has been off touch since his last two defeats. But, this performance has proven the fact that the old Francis Ngannou is back for good.
This fight also was the rematch between Ngannou and Blaydes, who had previously collided in 2016, in what was also Blaydes' promotional debut, as he looked to shock the world and get revenge for his first loss in the Octagon. However, that wasn't the case to be, as Ngannou pretty much settled all the unfinished business and marked a huge comeback with a tremendous first round Knockout win.
With this win, Ngannou now moves to a 7-2 record in the UFC, whereas, Blaydes finds himself with 5 wins and 2 defeats.