Francis Ngannou says he has requested to challenge for the UFC Heavyweight Championship at UFC 256. He spoke with The Schmo recently and said he asked the UFC to fight on the December 12th card. The PPV just lost its scheduled main event between Kamaru Usman and Gilbert Burns.
“I requested for December 12, which is the last pay-per-view of the year,” Ngannou said of a rematch with Miocic (h/t My MMA News). “Almost over two months from now and I’m expecting to have that date.”
Ngannou also spoke about what he will do differently this time against Stipe.
“Work a lot on my game and get a better training camp,” Ngannou continued. “And that will definitely not happen again. When I look back to that fight, I see a lot of opportunities that I could have had if I really was well prepared.”
Ngannou is currently the #1 ranked heavyweight and #15 in the UFC pound-for-pound rankings. He dropped a decision to Stipe Miocic at UFC 220, however, and followed that up with a loss to Derrick Lewis at UFC 226. Since then, he’s been on a 4-fight winning streak, however. He’s defeated Curtis Blaydes, Cain Velasquez, Junior Dos Santos, and Jairzinho Rozenstruik in that time.
The full interview with Ngannou can be viewed in the player below:
