When Stipe Miocic suffered a knockout loss to Francis Ngannou at UFC 260 back in 2021, he thought a trilogy fight was inevitable.
Considering Miocic manhandled Ngannou in their first encounter three years earlier, it wasn’t a shocking request that he would get the rubber match to settle the trilogy. Unfortunately for Miocic, Ngannou ended up facing Ciryl Gane instead nine months later, aggravated a knee injury in the process and then sat out to recover from surgery before entering free agency.
In the end, Ngannou surrendered the UFC heavyweight title and opted to sign with the PFL while also crossing over to boxing for a pair of fights against Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua.
“I was trying. I was trying to get the rematch,” Miocic said about pursuing the Ngannou trilogy when speaking to MMA Fighting. “Then he left and it didn’t happen unfortunately.
“Listen, I’m a fighter. I don’t work for the UFC internally and [figuring] out matchmaking. It’s what they wanted to do and it’s what they did.”
As much as Miocic wanted that third fight against Ngannou, he can’t fault the former UFC heavyweight champion for opting to take a deal that would allow him to live out his dream in the boxing ring and get paid a whole lot of money to do it.
“Yeah of course [I was bummed] because I wanted the rubber match,” Miocic said. “But also at the same point, he’s doing better for himself and his family. I’m not mad at him. He’s doing great.”
In his two fights crossing over to boxing, Ngannou took Fury to a razor-close decision loss after scoring a shocking knockdown on the former heavyweight champion. Things didn’t go as well against Joshua after Ngannou suffered a pair of knockdowns before being finished with a vicious punch in the second round.
Miocic, a Golden Gloves boxer in his youth, admits he didn’t watch both of Ngannou’s fights, but he was still proud to see his former rival getting the chance to compete against two of the best heavyweights in the sport.
“I saw clips of it,” Miocic said about the boxing matches. “The first one he did well with Fury and unfortunately the second one didn’t go well with Joshua. But it happens. It’s fighting, anything can happen.
“Some people said he won [against Fury]. I didn’t see the whole fight but a lot of people said he won the fight. He put him down. He did a lot of things. Listen, he convinced that many people that he could [beat him]. Shows that we can hang.”
Ngannou returned to MMA this past October when he made short work of Renan Ferreira in his PFL debut. As of now, he’s undecided on what comes next.
With opportunities available in both boxing and MMA, Ngannou can essentially pick or choose whatever he wants to do, but it seems highly unlikely that a return to the UFC ever happens. Ngannou remains at odds with UFC CEO Dana White and appears happy controlling his own destiny.
That means there’s little to no chance that Miocic ever gets to settle the score. As much as he once wanted the trilogy, he’s resolved in knowing that his rivalry with Ngannou ends at one win apiece.
“Listen, I’m OK with letting go,” Miocic said. “I get it. As much as I would love to fight him, I wish him nothing but the best and it is what it is. We’re 1-1. That’s the way it will be. He got the last one unfortunately.”
