Would someone with Ngannou's skill set be any good at lightweight?

[TheItalianStallion]

No. He's a one punch pony

 

[Mohawk Banditó]

How many fighters did Conor kimura in his UFC career

 

[TriangleMonkey]

Melvin Guillard...?

 

[markg171]

People make the mistake of thinking Ngannou is unskilled and just blessed with God-given power. He hits hard, but the best skill he's got going is his hand-eye coordination.

Watch his KOs. His eyes follows his opponent the entire time, never losing track of them, even when both of them are moving or swinging. He always keeps his eye on his opponent, or instantly corrects himself to re-get it. His fist is just following the path he's kept track of when he throws, and the connection between the space his fist is at and where it needs to get is second to none. That's how he keeps getting these KOs from all these angles, positions, and "out of nowhere". His fist is hitting the target it was meant to as he's known where it was at all times.

He's not getting lucky with his KOs, which is the mistake people keep making in analyzing him.

 

[SuperNerd]

You might as well ask if Sidney Crosby would be good at basket ball

 

[superpunch]

It’s a flawed question. You can’t separate skills from physical build, not entirely, it’s largely part of the same package.

Do you think Cruz would have his footwork if he was 6’4” 260lbs? Would Ngannou be KOing fools into another dimension if he was 135lbs and 64” reach? Maybe he would've trained differently if that was his build, no?

With that said, yeah, HW talent is pretty bad.

Muhammad Ali had that kind of footwork. Mike Tyson also had equally active footwork, just a different style. I know what you're trying to say, but it's just not true. Big guys can and do move like that. Just not in MMA. What you're really doing is rationalizing why you don't see those guys in MMA: you don't see them because MMA HWs suck.

 

[Portland8242]

Doesn't make sense.

That's like asking if someone with Colby/Usman's skillset would be successful at HW. A 240+ pound man can't wrestle non-stop for rounds on end. Even Cain had to take breaks and use striking despite his major cardio advantage over everyone else.

 

[surgeyou1]

 

[thobra]

Why? It seems to me they're more elusive targets than most HWs.

Because they have less mass, And can move around More, but they Are not so concerned about being hit, And can fight in a very different way. If you look closely, the lower weightclasses Are hit quite often, And with hard shots. At HW that would mean the end. A HW needs to have a very different technique.

Also, their styles/technique would mean they gas out pretty fast. Trying to be elusive has a price.

 

[gono btw]

Helio Gracie: "If I had fists like Igor´s, I would have never grappled."

 

[King in the North]

Imagine Ngannou fighting flyweights

 

[Doug Money]

People say he'd be Josh Emitt but i say Charles Bennet, minus the krack

 

[CallMeCasual]

This is what BW Ngannou would look like. He would knock fools out just like he does today.

 

[superpunch]

Is he allowed to weigh in 30 lbs overweight?

then absolutely he would

30 lb muscle advantage + Ngannou's skillset and attributes = death to all manlets

 

[d0g]

Cain is basically a heavyweight Khabib. Lightweight Ngannou would be champion.

 

[TheNinja]

I’d say that he’d be Jeremy Stephens but even that comparison doesn’t quite feel accurate.

That's who I was thinking too. I was trying to come up with names, Pulver, Gomi, but Stephens is good. Or a WW Johny Hendricks.

 

[bleeder]

Not really, mini-Ngannou wouldn't be able to stuff td's from higher level wrestlers at LW.

 

[Liverkick-king56]

Rumble did pretty damn good at WW and he doesn't have the KO power of Ngannou.

Ngannou also beat a beast like Blaydes twice.
Ngannou subbed BJJ black belt Anthony Hamilton

Sure it isn't pretty but Ngannou has legit skills and is beating very skilled guys
Cain, JDS, Overeem, Blaydes are 4 guys who get tons of credit for having the skills and fluidity of smaller fighters

 

[SG123]

I'm not trying to criticize Francis as I am a big fan of his, but after watching how effective he has been with seemingly atrocious technique, it makes me wonder if he would even be ranked if he fought in a skilled division like LW or BW. No offense but HW is terrible in terms of skill, talent pool, and depth.

Would a scaled down version of Francis beat elite strikers like Conor, Poirier, or Gaethje?

He doesn’t really have a skillset. He’s just huge, strong, with crazy power in his wild punches. HW MMA has regressed over the last 15 years

 

[Mittens]

Is ”punching really, really fucking hard” a skill? If so, yes.