I fought for 20 seconds in 16 months – Francis Ngannou unhappy with inactive heavyweight division

Being the No. 1 contender in a division comes with somewhat of a sense of security in that your next fight is already figured out for you and it will more than likely be a championship opportunity against the current reigning champion.

This sense of security seems to have escaped former heavyweight title challenger and current No. 1 contender, Francis Ngannou, who is unsure about if and when he fights next. Ngannou took to Twitter on Tuesday afternoon to express his annoyance with the lack of fighting as well as his overall dissatisfaction with the way the division has been moving along.

“Two title fights in the [UFC] heavyweight division for the past two years and yet we don’t know if there will be another one anytime soon,” wrote Ngannou. “Contenders have to fight for something.”

Ngannou (15-3) is referring to the title fights between Stipe Miocic and Daniel Cormier, who recently completed a trilogy that saw the heavyweight championship up for grabs in their last two outings. The trilogy took much longer to complete than expected as both Miocic and Cormier met once per year between 2018 and 2020, which left the rest of the division at a standstill.

In that time, Ngannou has reascended up the rankings with four straight knockout victories over Curtis Blaydes, Cain Velasquez, Junior dos Santos and Jairzinho Rozenstruik. The impressive win streak left many with the impression that Ngannou would be meeting Miocic again sometime soon, but ‘The Predator’ believes he will be on the sidelines for longer as the champion may not return until 2021.

“Apparently Stipe is out until March. If I have to wait until then it’ll be almost another year between fights,” wrote Ngannou in a second tweet.

Ngannou has taken anywhere between two and three fights in a year for most of his professional career, so being inactive is something he is not used to and prefers not to be. He made this very clear in his final tweet, concluding his feelings on everything that has transpired in the last few months.

“I fought once for 20 seconds in the last 16 months,” wrote Ngannou.

He initially called for the rematch with Miocic for December, but that does not seem as though it will happen. Miocic and Ngannou first met in the main event of UFC 220, where the latter was defeated by way of unanimous decision.

Unfortunately, if he wants his next fight to be for the championship, Ngannou will have no choice but to wait until 2021.