Stipe looked terrible against Francis

I think that the first hard shot Ngannou gave him really rocked him and he never fully recovered from it.
 
He looked terrible in the previous fight against DC, but DC looked even more terrible. They both looked old, slow and hittable.

Shouldn't be a surprise, Stipe is 39 right now. He's only 6 years younger than Nog/Fedor, who are both beyond shop worn.

He's kind of lucky that there weren't any decent younger fighters until Ngannou/Gane. UFC HW has been beyond trash for a good while now.

A long way removed from having Coleman/Randelman/Nog/Herring/Fedor/Aleks/Barnett/Mir/Sylvia/Arlovski etc circa 2005 or whatever.

You look at wrestling backgrounds and Curtis Blaydes is Top 5 and didn't even have an NCCA full scholarship for wrestling, while Coleman was an Olympian, Randelman was national NCAA champion, as was Kerr, with Randy coming #2.

There's zero high level BJJ guys at HW in the UFC.

Gane/Rosenstruck have respectable kickboxing backgrounds, but that's it.

Then you just have a lot of not that athletic and/or skilled tall/fat guys.
 
pick999 said:
he got careless after he rocked francis and got koed
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He didn’t rock Francis he actually missed that shot and just kind of dragged his forearm across ngannous face. Stipe got reckless after missing a punch. Pull up the fight on YouTube and watch it in slow motion.
 
chitoortiz said:
Stipe looked old and shot.

It was sad to see. Those wars with DC really took their toll on him.

Still the UFC HW GOAT. Respect to the ex champ.
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Nngoatou is the UFC heavyweight GOAT bro Slipe Mi Ho chick is just another casualty. I'll wipe your tears don't worry
 
alex21cms said:
he accepted getting punched didn t even counter like the first time and didn t even mixed up the takedowns it was pretty mutch the same as Blaydes vs Derrick not to mention he bullrushed chin first to a huge counter

Gane will not make such mistakes
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His confidence in his counter is what lead to the KO. Rewatch it. He tags Francis as he’s coming in for the kill. He notices it and goes to follow up. That’s when the KO shot lands.
 
Sweet Jesu, all you gravediggers in here trying to bury Stipe alive. Old, slow, DC done him in, he was clearly on the decline already—you boast of the signs you noticed at the time, or at least that's what you say after the fact.

No one can argue away the passage of time, of course, and 39 is a perilous age in this perilous game. But Iet's wait for a couple more fights before we start singing the funeral mass, eh? (Assuming that he will fight a couple more times...)
 
Stipe looked like shit In all 3 DC fights as well ….Seems a theme
 
Stipe was fighting against the clock in that one. Wanted to gas Frank out. Slow the pace to get there, avoid exchanges, not take the risk to get KO'd by a guy known for it.

But didn't work, Frank was prepared for the wrestling and picked his shots. It could've lasted longer with that pace. Same outcome. From that point of view a 3rd fight isn't that interesting, Ngannou improved. But Stipe still has done enough to get it.
 
MCS said:
Stipe was fighting against the clock in that one. Wanted to gas Frank out. Slow the pace to get there, avoid exchanges, not take the risk to get KO'd by a guy known for it.

But didn't work, Frank was prepared for the wrestling and picked his shots. It could've lasted longer with that pace. Same outcome. From that point of view a 3rd fight isn't that interesting, Ngannou improved. But Stipe still has done enough to get it.
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I do have to say as well, when has Stipe ever managed in a slow technical kickboxing match and looked really good?

Ngannou gets called out as a bullrusher but really I would argue Stipe was actually more of a buillrusher than he was, JDS both times, Reem, Arlovski, etc were wins basically from chasing someone down and unloading close in were there defence was really poor.

Stipe as a great technical kickboxer who could avoid getting hit and pick out big shots from range, I don't think that fighter ever really existed.
 
moreorless87 said:
I do have to say as well, when has Stipe ever managed in a slow technical kickboxing match and looked really good?

Ngannou gets called out as a bullrusher but really I would argue Stipe was actually more of a buillrusher than he was, JDS both times, Reem, Arlovski, etc were wins basically from chasing someone down and unloading close in were there defence was really poor.

Stipe as a great technical kickboxer who could avoid getting hit and pick out big shots from range, I don't think that fighter ever really existed.
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He's pretty good at cutting guys off and unloading at arm's length. Traps guys so the only thing they can do is exchange or defend. Throws long left-right power combinations until the opponent goes down.

From range he tries to pressure to get there, even by forcing it, even by taking shots. He's not really a distance kickboxer, so it's tough to make such a plan work.
 
MCS said:
He's pretty good at cutting guys off and unloading at arm's length. Traps guys so the only thing they can do is exchange or defend. Throws long left-right power combinations until the opponent goes down.

From range he tries to pressure to get there, even by forcing it, even by taking shots. He's not really a distance kickboxer, so it's tough to make such a plan work.
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I do think the seocnd Ngannou fight though played into what many have said previously, that Stipe would struggle if he faced an opponent were he didnt have a big weakenss to target.

He was basically forced into the lions den in this fight, fight against his opponents strenght.
 
It's true, rewatching the Gane - Lewis fight..

Ngannou can't beat him unfortunately.. he won't be able to land on him..
 
moreorless87 said:
I do think the seocnd Ngannou fight though played into what many have said previously, that Stipe would struggle if he faced an opponent were he didnt have a big weakenss to target.

He was basically forced into the lions den in this fight, fight against his opponents strenght.
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For the matador style to work point fighting skills or counter ability would serve well. He did counter Werdum, but usually it's been going forward, pressure. Even against a much smaller man in DC he hurt him when aggressively pressuring him back. And also in the first Ngannou fight. But he couldn't trade with him in the rematch, no safe openings. So style wise I don't see how he could beat him next time. The pick apart is not Stipe's strength.
 
Who hasn't looked terrible against Ngannou? Also he is the only guy to ever dominate Ngannou in the UFC. Pretty poorly phrased thread title, Stipe is the most dominant heavyweight champion in the history of the UFC.
 
Stipe got exposed imo. He struggled with 40 year old cormier. He did beat Frank. But Frank flailed like a lunatic for a round then was gassed in the first fight. It was easy for stipe to grind out a decision - even though he looked worse for wear than Francis at the end. The fact Stipe could not finish gassed Frank said it all.
 
Stipe had too many odds against him in their second fight like Francis kinda in their first fight ( too green to face such champion at the time, even tho probably most people believed hes gonna kill Stipe). Neither one of those 2 fights were a prime vs prime fights. I dont know how it goes prime vs prime. Smaller octagon did help Francis alot too. he looked like a mammoth in there
 
Qays Stetkevich said:
As a Stipe fan the whole "getting significantly smaller to get faster" just didn't seem like a good idea to me. Even in grappling, that makes trying to move, take and hold the bigger guy down more difficult. And in striking, you're eating bombs while throwing peanuts.
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While to a certain extent it's true, Stipe was still 234 lbs, you can KO pretty much anyone while being this heavy.
 
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