Stipe Miocic lost his UFC heavyweight title in the most violent way possible, going down in flames against heavyweight head hunter Francis Ngannou in the UFC 260 pay-per-view (PPV) main event last Sat. night (March 27) at APEX in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Is it time for the Cleveland firefighter to retire from combat sports?
“It could be the end of a long and storied career,” UFC color commentator Joe Rogan said during the UFC 260 post-fight show. “It’s entirely up to him. I’m sure he’s gonna take some time and rest and think things through. But what a career the man has had. Very underappreciated, beaten legends. But I think he ran into an unstoppable force tonight. When you have a guy like Francis who is a one-in-a-million physical specimen, maybe one in eighty million, right?”
Not once in a lifetime … ONCE EVER!
Miocic turns 39 this summer and is already regarded as the best heavyweight fighter in the history of UFC, racking up four title defenses while capturing dominant wins over the likes of Ngannou and Daniel Cormier, among others.
That said, Miocic (20-4) is 8-2 over his last 10 bouts and still has plenty of fight left. The result of UFC 260, if we are to agree with Rogan’s assessment, has more to do with the rise of Ngannou and less to do with the fall of Miocic.
Perhaps a rebound fight against this venerable contender will tell the tale.