Earlier this month, Stipe Miocic outstruck the great Daniel Cormier over five arduous rounds to not only retain the UFC heavyweight championship, but earn popular recognition as the greatest heavyweight in UFC history. Miocic is 38 years old but still appears very much like the world’s best heavyweight, and a second strong run as UFC champion will go a long way towards securing his legacy as one of the greatest fighters of all time.

His next defense could go a couple different ways. He could take on Jon Jones, the legendary former light heavyweight champion who appears to finally be moving up to heavyweight – it’s the kind of fight that you just know Dana White is itching to book. But most expect it to be a rematch with the world’s top contender, the monstrously powerful Cameroonian boxer Francis Ngannou, who has been on an epic tear through the upper ranks of the heavyweight division and is, coincidentally, the last fighter who faced Miocic before the trilogy with Cormier.

So, with that in mind, it’s time to open up a new series here at The Big Fight, one that will get added to when inspiration strikes or when I’m bored and there isn’t much to talk about. I can’t think of a better fight to start it off with than the first time Miocic and Ngannou met in the Octagon, a unanimous decision win for Miocic in Boston in January 2018.

Personally, I can genuinely remember few heavyweight title fights I was more excited for than Miocic-Ngannou. Miocic was into his second year as champion, having won every title fight so far by first-round KO, and most recently tearing through Junior dos Santos in two and a half minutes to avenge one of his only career losses. The hulking Ngannou was on a similar run: he had stopped all six of his UFC opponents, including four straight in the first round. Less than two months before, he had faced off with legendary Dutch kickboxer Alistair Overeem and hit him with a left hook so destructive that it concussed Overeem’s entire ancestral line:

Ngannou’s hype was at an all-time high. The Overeem knockout was the moment it felt like he had truly arrived as a star, and he earned a quick turnaround in the main event of a big pay-per-view that also featured Cormier defending the light heavyweight title against Volkan Oezdemir. It was the world’s best heavyweight against the scariest looking contender in the game, and you knew there were going to be fireworks.

Now, if you’ve watched Stipe Miocic’s career, I don’t need to convince you how tough he is. We’ve seen plenty of examples. Most would point to the second Cormier fight, where Cormier walked him down and battered him for three rounds but didn’t manage to put him away – he shrugged off 15 minutes of cerebral abuse and then punched Cormier in the gut until he collapsed. But when I think of Stipe’s chin, I always remember this shot he ate from Ngannou in the first round of this fight.

Ngannou has purely freakish power, and this right hand scrambled Miocic’s brains so badly that, after the fight, he said that he didn’t remember what day it was. Miocic didn’t drop. He barely even wobbled. Instead, he instantly took him down and finished the round on top.

This might be the only 50-44 decision in history where I’m genuinely surprised that the guy picking up the 44s didn’t actually win the fight. Miocic hit some really stiff shots of his own in the stand-up exchanges, but my God, Ngannou hit him with some bombs that would kill Godzilla. I don’t understand how Miocic just kept going. Ngannou maybe didn’t land the big knockout-type blow that destroyed Overeem, but Miocic took everything he threw and barely even staggered.

Miocic came out of the first round bloodied, his left eye swollen, but the biggest danger was over. From the second round onward, Ngannou looked gassed. That type of energy dump has got to be somewhat expected: can you imagine a 6-foot-4, 260 pound monster with muscles like Ngannou being able to throw the same kind of heavy leather for 25 minutes? Human beings like that don’t exist.

Miocic, who does have excellent cardio for a heavyweight, sensed that weakness and exploited it ruthlessly. He attacked Ngannou with his excellent wrestling game, forcing the challenger to defend double-leg takedowns for the first time since he fought Curtis Blaydes two years before. With Ngannou’s explosive power drained, Miocic was able to force his opponent to carry his weight and pushed the fight past the point of no return.

Ngannou still had moments. In the third, he blasted Miocic with an overhand right that wobbled the champ’s legs, only for Miocic to immediately take him down – Miocic supposedly directly told Ngannou on the ground that he had hurt him bad. Even so, there wasn’t anything Ngannou could do about it. Miocic kept Ngannou on the ground for the entire fourth round, and in the fifth, the Cameroonian was so tired that he could barely move. Final score: Miocic by unanimous decision, 50-44 on all three cards.

Stipe Miocic is a great boxer with a tough chin and a ton of knockouts on his record. Even he didn’t want to mess with Francis Ngannou on the feet for longer than he had to. So, he turned to the safest and most effective gameplan he could: exploit Ngannou’s questionable takedown defense and make him expend energy until he wore out. You can criticize Ngannou’s gas tank, and some of it is warranted, but how many fighters could withstand a concerted wrestling attack from Stipe Miocic over 25 minutes and not get tired? Once Miocic had survived the first round, he was looking good. Once he took that monster right hand in the third round and didn’t fall, the fight was basically over.

The question now is whether Miocic can pull the same trick in the rematch, which hasn’t yet been officially announced. The key, of course, will be Ngannou’s takedown defense, and in the two-plus years since his first shot at the title, we haven’t really gotten the chance to see if it’s improved. Ngannou’s first fight after Miocic was against Derrick Lewis in an all-time snoozer where they basically didn’t do anything for three rounds – since then he’s run through Blaydes, Cain Velasquez, dos Santos and Jairzinho Rozenstruik in an average time of less than a minute.

Ngannou has looked rejuvenated and as dangerous as ever, but none of his opponents have been able to withstand his punching power long enough to drag him into the deep waters and put him to the test. But here’s another question: after three wars with Cormier, one of which saw Miocic eat a stunning knockout on a short right hand out of the clinch, is the champion’s chin quite the same as it was when he first fought Ngannou? If Ngannou lands the same shot that turned Miocic’s neck into jelly in the first round, or that overhand right he blasted him with in the third, does 2020 (or 2021) Miocic take it the same way as 2018 Miocic?

Stipe Miocic will more than likely still be able to take Francis Ngannou down, but you have to imagine that “The Predator” will get at least a few chances to land some bombs. He got those chances in the first fight despite Miocic’s gameplan. The next time around, I can’t help but think that it might not end the same way. But if Miocic survives the early knockout again? You’re probably looking at another W in the book of the UFC heavyweight GOAT.