stipe is scared he knows francis beat him in the rematch, Ngannou first performance against Stipe is not representative of ngannou's lvl, indeed in their first fight ngannou made a lot of stupid mistakes which proved his lack of experience :
- came to the fight overweight ( he had to cut weight to make 265, WTF ? )
- didn't train cardio, because he was convinced he will KO stipe
- because of his overconfidence, he changed the way he usually fight, indeed ngannou by nature is a counter striker ( a bit like a heavyweight version of conor ) and prefers to let his opponent make the first step, capitalize on the possible openings and win the fight, however in the first fight francis ran at stipe like a fucking BULL ( it was entertaining though ) and was throwing punches in the air without thinking or waiting for stipe to make a mistake.
- Even though it was a very BAD performance by ngannou, stipe's head was very damaged ... ( he kept a black eye for months ... )
Now, the two fighters are not the same than in 2018 :
- Ngannou lost a lot of weights, his body is now better suited for MMA
- According to his camp, he follows a strict cardio training
- He showed an improved takedown defense, by stuffing takedowns from cain and blaydes, who are both better wrestlers than stipe
- Ngannou gained experience, and will wait for stipe to make a mistake, like he did against all his opponents this past yearb ( in all his career actually, exept the fight against stipe )
- Stipe, this last 3 fights, took A LOT of damage, and he is near 40 years old, I would not have a lot of confidence on Stipe's chin this time ...
- DC and JDS have showed that stipe doesn't deal well with leg kicks, leg kicks that are a new weapon on francis arsenal...
For all these reasons, I believe Francis SHOULD beat Stipe.