A heavyweight showdown between Francis Ngannou and Derrick Lewis is reported to have been targeted for the upcoming UFC 226 event on July 7th during International Fight Week in Las Vegas.
Ngannou has been the most hyped new star in the heavyweight ranks for quite some time, but his bid to take the title from Stipe Miocic back at UFC 220 in January fell short, losing out by unanimous decision to the champion.
Nonetheless, the 31-year-old has proven to be a force to be reckoned with, having registered six UFC wins in a row prior to that, including TKO’ing Curtis Blaydes and Andrei Arlovski, before delivering one of the nastiest knockouts in recent memory against Alistair Overeem at the tail-end of last year.
Now Ngannou will face the other hard-hitting heavyweight who has been making waves in the division over the past few years, Lewis, who rose to prominence after a six-fight unbeaten stretch that saw him KO the likes of Gabriel Gonzaga and Travis Browne, while also earning a split decision victory over Roy Nelson.
The 33-year-old ‘Black Beast’ then came unstuck via TKO against Mark Hunt, but he’s since got back to winning ways with a TKO win agains Marcin Tybura back in February.
Ngannou Vs Lewis is expected to be the newest edition to a UFC 226 card that will be headlined by a heavyweight title superfight between Stipe Miocic and Daniel Cormier, while featherweight champion Max Holloway will be going up against Brian Ortega.
