Junior Dos Santos Calls Out Francis Ngannou : “It Was a Lucky Punch”

Junior Dos Santos was on his way to the title shot again until the most feared man in the heavyweight division, Francis Ngannou knocked him out. As Dos Santos said himself after that loss the path to the title shot just got longer. However, Junior Dos Santos ready to put in the work again to get an opportunity to become the UFC heavyweight champion again.

In his recent interview, the former champion said that he wants to get back into the octagon as soon as possible. Talking about his potential next fight, JDS said that he wants to fight with Alexander Volkov, who himself was one step away from the title shot until he lost to Derrick Lewis.

However, the fight that JDS wants the most is the rematch against Francis Ngannou. “My goal right now is to have the rematch with Ngannou and my third fight with Stipe.” said JDS.

Their first encounter was only 1.11 minutes long. Though JDS was getting his rhythm and footwork right in the beginning he over-committed with the right hand. When you are fighting Ngannou the margin of error is very small. That small mistake by JDS cost him the fight as Ngannou tagged him with a few powerful bombs.
Looking back at their first encounter, JDS said:

“My strategy wasn?t to try to knock him out at the beginning, it was to move a lot and throw a lot of punches and make him follow me, make it a longer fight. But then I felt so good, and I saw him start putting his arms down, and I said ?oh my gosh, this is my time.? And I threw that overhand right, and that was the biggest mistake. That exposed me to his punches. “

Though JDS gave props to Ngannou for the victory, he is still not convinced that Ngannou is a better fighter than him. JDS has defeated some impressive names in the sport in his decorated career. The former champion has knocked out arguably the best heavyweight on the planet, Cain Velasquez. He has also beaten the current heavyweight champion, Stipe Miocic.

JDS further claimed that Ngannou got lucky in the first match. He compared his loss to Ngannou with Stipe’s knock out loss to DC. To JDS, in both scenarios, it was a lucky shot that ended the fight. JDS claimed:

“I?m not taking anything away from him, but it was a lucky punch. He enjoyed the moment and he finished the fight, but he?s not better than me.”

In his recent interview with Ariel Helwani, Ngannou said that he wants to fight for the title next. He wants to avenge his loss against Stipe Miocic. At this point, Ngannou can’t fight anyone else but Miocic since he has beaten everyone else. However, it would be fascinating to see how Ngannou reacts to Junior Dos Santos calling him out for a rematch.