UFC Beijing Results: Francis Ngannou stops Curtis Blaydes in 45 seconds

Bloody Elbow 2.0 | Anton Tabuena

Well, Francis Ngannou is back. It took him less than a minute to remind us all of this by finishing Curtis Blaydes with a bomb of a right hand and relentless follow up punches.

Heavyweight: Curtis Blaydes def. Francis Ngannou via TKO (punches), round 1 (0:45).

Francis Ngannou started the fight with a thudding leg kick on Curtis Blaydes. Blaydes responded by rushing forwards with a flurry, that Ngannou avoided. Ngannou separated and then stepped forwards calmly with a thunderous right that landed behind Blaydes’ ear. Blaydes face-planted on the canvas.

Blaydes tried to recover and looked as if he had a chance to come back, but Ngannou would not let up. Referee Marc Goddard gave Blaydes plenty of time to get back into the fight, but he just couldn’t do it. The ref was forced to step in and hand Ngannou the TKO victory.

“I’m back!” Ngannou proclaimed following the win.

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Tim Bissell

Tim Bissell is a writer, editor and deputy site manager for Bloody Elbow. He has covered combat sports since 2015. Tim covers news and events and has also written longform and investigative pieces. Among Tim's specialties are the intersections between crime and combat sports. Tim has also covered head trauma, concussions and CTE in great detail.

Tim is also BE's lead (only) sumo reporter. He blogs about that sport here and on his own substack, Sumo Stomp!

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