Daniel Cormier Wouldn’t Hesitate Fighting ‘Great Guy’ Francis Ngannou

Daniel Cormier isn’t sold on Francis Ngannou being drastically different from his fights with Stipe Miocic and Derrick Lewis.

Cormier is the reigning UFC heavyweight champion. He’ll put his gold on the line against Stipe Miocic in a rematch. The title clash is set to headline UFC 241 on Aug. 17.

TSN’s Aaron Bronsteter spoke to Cormier ahead of UFC 241. “DC” said he’s a fan of Ngannou as a person, but feels “The Predator” hasn’t changed much:

“I think he’s a great guy. I like Francis, he’s very respectful. But I think everybody now has to take a step back because nothing has changed. This is the same thing that we saw prior to his title fight. Just remember that. You guys have to slow down. You get excited and you fall in love with these knockouts but nothing has changed. He did that to Overeem to earn a title fight. He knocked out all those guys prior. Nothing has changed. So as much as I respect him, it’s not a fight that I would have much hesitation in taking.”

Cormier continued by questioning Ngannou’s ability to rise to the occasion when he’s taken into deep waters.

“Nothing’s changed. He beat Cain in [26] seconds – which is crazy to me – he beat Junior in a minute and [11] seconds – which is crazy to me – and he beat Curtis Blaydes in about a minute. So he’s fought three minutes total. What happens at minute seven and minute eight and minute nine and minute 10 when a guy’s just dragging on him and grinding on him and making all that muscle blow up? That’s a big guy. Everybody loves the physical guy, the big, strong, bulging muscles, but at the end of the day, oxygen has to pass through that and when you start to wear at that, those guys get tired and I think Francis would have to have made some wholesale changes to change everything and I’m not exactly sure what we’ve seen recently to prove that anything has changed.”

Ngannou is coming off a TKO victory over Junior dos Santos. It’s his third win in a row. If you combine the time of his last three outings, you wouldn’t even get a full round.