Michael Bisping doesn’t see Jon Jones beating Francis Ngannou unless he’s able to drag him to the mat.
Despite Ngannou (17-3 MMA, 12-2 UFC) needing a grappling-heavy approach to retain his title against Ciryl Gane at UFC 270 on Saturday, Bisping thinks it would be a bad idea for the former light heavyweight king to keep a fight on the feet against Ngannou.
Jones (26-1 MMA, 20-1 UFC) was pretty confident after watching Ngannou defeat Gane, but Bisping insists his grappling will have to play a major factor.
“Only until they fight will we really know the answer to that,” Bisping told “Submission Radio.” “However, it all depends on Jon Jones’ wrestling. If Jon can’t take him down, he ain’t beating Francis Ngannou, and I don’t care about, ‘Oh, he’s the master of gameplans,’ and all this type of stuff. If you’re forced to stand toe-to-toe with Francis Ngannou, and you cannot take him down, Jon’s probably going to get knocked out. Let’s be honest. We all know how hard he hits. He looked great Saturday night. He was working the body more than just going for the head. That shows a lot of maturity.
“And in terms of wrestling, I mean, yes, of course Jon’s a better wrestler. But Francis is bloody strong, and he’s getting better at wrestling all the time. And I think it was DC who said on Saturday night, height-wise they’re kind of similar, Ciryl and Francis. But when you looked at their legs, the legs, the thighs, the ass on Francis Ngannou, absolutely gigantic. And I know that sounds like a weird comment talking about the size of Francis’ ass, but that’s where the power comes from. It really does. So yeah, listen, we can sit here and ponder all day long, but until the fight happens, we don’t know. We just don’t know.”
Ngannou did enter his fight with Gane on a compromised knee, which forced him to rely on his wrestling to overpower Gane. Although he caught plenty of people off guard with his performance, including Bisping, “The Count” says it shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise that Ngannou has made advancements in his game.
“Well, I was surprised, to be honest, because even though I picked him to win and I did expect to see a better technical skillset from him, I didn’t expect that performance, if I’m honest,” Bisping said. “Now, of course, it wasn’t a perfect performance, and he certainly slowed down, and he could have capitalized on some positions better. But as I said on the YouTube video, he, in his mind, when he beat Stipe, was probably getting ready for the greatest of all time (Jon Jones). Training at Xtreme Couture with Eric Nicksick in America, access to great wrestlers, if he’s not working on his wrestling, he’s a fool.
“And I know he’s not a fool, he’s a very smart man, and his coaches are very smart, some of the best in the business. So, if you look at the first fight with Stipe to the second fight, there was massive improvements there. And then another year since the last Stipe fight, since he won the belt, you would be a fool to not think that he made improvements, and that’s what we saw. He was way more composed. He hit that sweep in the fifth round. He was hitting takedowns. Now, of course, that doesn’t mean Francis is now a wrestler. He knows some takedowns, and he’s got another wrinkle to his game, and in hindsight, when you’re fighting a French kickboxer, it’s the perfect gameplan.”
Michael Bisping: Jon Jones gets knocked out if he can’t take Francis Ngannou down
