Michael Bisping: Stipe Miocic can become MMA GOAT by beating Francis Ngannou, Jon Jones

UFC Hall of Famer Michael Bisping thinks heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic could be a couple of wins away from stamping his legacy as the greatest to ever do it.

Already widely considered the greatest heavyweight of all time, Miocic (20-3 MMA, 14-3 UFC) will look to add to his already impressive resume by taking down Francis Ngannou once again when the pair rematch in Saturday’s UFC 260 main event at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas.

In their first outing in January 2018, Ngannou came out firing and exhausted himself after just a couple of minutes. Miocic was able to weather the early storm then use his superior grappling to control Ngannou for 25 minutes.

Since then, Ngannou (15-3 MMA, 10-2 UFC) has won four of his past five, starching four straight opponents in the first round. While Bisping thinks Ngannou will enter more confident and experienced, he wonders if his recent quick results will have allowed him to make the necessary adjustments.

“I think it’s gonna be a very confident one because when he fought Stipe the first time, he was still a baby in mixed martial arts,” Bisping told MMA Junkie this week. “Ngannou was a victim of his own success because he would go out there, just touch anybody and they fall asleep, and that’s great. That’s gonna make you very famous. You’re gonna get a lot of fans, you’re gonna earn a lot of money, but you’re not learning anything. As a fighter, you learn the most when you’ve got to fight through adversity, when you find yourself in these positions, maybe even take a couple of losses.

“Now, of course, in the Stipe one he did, and I’m sure he did learn a lot from that, but since that fight I think it’s been four fights that he’s just absolutely blitzed everybody again, and that’s awesome for the confidence. It’s awesome for the momentum, it got him the title shot, but is he going to fall back into the same mistakes? Is he still gonna go in a little underprepared? Because I know for a fact when I was training, I’d always be in the best shape I could be. I was running down the streets, going crazy, pushing myself to the limit in the gym. But if I had a history of just touching people and them falling asleep, I’m not sure I would have pushed myself quite the same. I don’t know.”

Ngannou is the betting favorite once again, if only slightly. But considering the amount of success Miocic had in the first fight, Bisping can see the rematch playing out the same way.

“For Stipe, he’s coming into this as an underdog, as the best champion we’ve ever seen and already beating Ngannou, so I’m sure there’s a little chip on his shoulder about that. He’s probably a little annoyed, but … it’s crazy to go against the champ, isn’t it? He’s already beaten him, and he’s the best heavyweight on paper in history that the UFC’s ever seen. So I’m leaning towards that, but Ngannou has probably learned a bit more, and he’s training at Xtreme Couture now in Las Vegas, he’s been doing the wrestling and all that kind of thing. I think it comes down to the first round. If Ngannou is gonna win, he’s gonna do it in the first round.

“I think the longer it goes on – because if you look at Ngannou, the man is gigantic. He’s absolutely jacked and all those muscles look awesome, and he’s gonna be a massive movie star in action movies if he wants after the UFC, but they do tire you out. Stipe is a big dude. He’s got a bigger frame, but Ngannou’s got bigger muscles, so Stipe is more adept at going the distance, and I think he’ll drag him out into the later rounds and do the same thing. Or Ngannou just flatlines him with the first punch.”

If Miocic gets past Ngannou, a matchup with former light heavyweight champ and one of the greatest of all time, Jon Jones, likely will be next. And if Miocic goes on to beat Jones, as well, Bisping thinks he’ll have a solid case for being the greatest of all time period.

“I think now that Khabib is retired, Jones is pound-for-pound No. 1,” Bisping said. “OK, you got all the asterisks and things like that, and that’s unfortunate for him, but it’s the situation. However, if Jones can come up to heavyweight and become the champion there, then I think that solidifies him. But if Stipe can beat Ngannou and then beat Jon Jones, yeah there’s a very good argument for Stipe being the greatest mixed martial artist of all time.”