Francis Ngannou’s rose up the UFC heavyweight ranks with dizzying speed and came crashing down almost as quickly.
However, the one-time title contender put a hard stop to his descent with a thrilling 44-second TKO of Curtis Blaydes in the main event of UFC Beijing at Cadillac Arena on Friday. It was the second win that Ngannou can claim over Blaydes, one of the men that Ngannou defeated on his way to a title shot this past January.
At UFC 220, Ngannou was being pushed as the next big thing in the heavyweight division and it was believed that his spectacular finishing ability (Ngannou was riding a streak of four straight first-round finishes leading into the event) would allow him to knock off then-champion Stipe Miocic and become MMA’s next superstar.