My fucking god. Stipe still ate like 8 shots before he was out out that would have ended anyone else.
I know typically the champ gets a rematch when he's already won one, but you can't run that back right?
Stipe had the right approach to try to push it to five rounds and hope his cardio would be the difference. The UFC got what they wanted.
Ngannou has turned into a monster, pretty cool I can say I saw him fight in person when he fought in Detroit. Looking back that fight card was pretty stacked for a non Vegas or New York card. Ngannou, Aldo, Holloway, Gaetjche, Alvarez, Overeem, Cejudo all fought on it.
Jones is the greatest defensive fighter in history and is fucking enormous now. Obviously not Francis big, but Jones is at least 245 now and has an incredible chin. Still, Francis is just a cyborg.
Yea thats worst case scenario for Jones. Stipe was a smaller HW and Jones could match up. Idk how he goes about taking on Francis. Of course I'm saying this without knowing how big Jones is now
Maybe Jon can stay on the outside and chop out Francis's legs and wear him down but fuck signing up to fight that monster.
I know he wants to get paid, but still there's a dollars to lost brain cells ratio too to take into account haha. I'll absolutely be there
I wouldn't be surpised if Stipe called it a career. He'd have to put on serious weight to contend with Francis and he's 38. He could go down to 205 if he wanted but I don't know if he wants to do that.
I think that should be the fight if he doesn't retire. Winner gets the champ barring needing an immediate rematch between Francis and Jon. I can see Stipe wanting the Trilogy, especially after getting left out in the cold by DC before, but I don't think he deserves it right away. He needs time off after that and it wasn't close enough to warrant an immediate run back.