UFC 220: Stipe Miocic vs. Francis Ngannou

The first PPV of the new year, UFC 220 didn’t go off the way the UFC brass hoped.Putting all of their promotional stock behind Francis Ngannou, the sculpted big man fell short in his bid to become the MMA version of Mike Tyson.Instead, Stipe Miocic survived a few early scares to grind away at the big man and derail his hype train.You’d think the UFC would learn to make contingency plans after the way Ronda Rousey’s return blew up in their face….We may not have gotten the explosive finish we were hoping for in the main event, but we did get some solid and consistent action with over half of the main card fights delivering the goods, including Daniel Cormier putting on an entertaining defense of his light heavyweight title.Given we already knew Gian Villante and Francimar Barroso was already going to be a lost cause, that’s pretty damned good.As for the winners and losers of the night, here they are… Winners Stipe Miocic: I’m willing to concede that Miocic’s performance wasn’t the most entertaining, but he set the record for most consecutive title defenses in the UFC’s oldest division and thwarted the biggest hype train to hit the UFC heavyweight division since Cain Velasquez.That isn’t enough for you? Fine.According to FightMetric, Miocic landed 70 significant strikes to Ngannou’s 21 in addition to six takedowns to none for Ngannou.It wasn’t the prettiest contest, but Miocic dominated to make a case for him being the greatest heavyweight of all time.Yeah, I think it’s pretty damn clear Miocic walked out a big winner! Daniel Cormier: Cormier survived a slow start to turn in the most dominant performance of the night.Sure, he took some early damage, but once he exhausted Oezdemir a bit more, he had little trouble getting him to the ground and trapping him for a ground-and-pound stoppage.If nothing else, he needed the win to erase the most recent memory of him in the cage being cut down by Jon Jones.It’s unlikely he’ll ever be able to get the Jones-monkey off his back once and for all, but he can distance himself from it by defending his title as many times as possible.Such a shame that one of the most dominant competitors in MMA history is plagued by one man….Nonetheless, Cormier was a big winner at UFC 220.Calvin Kattar: It’s rare you fight a technically sound fight and still produce the levels of violence Kattar was able to against Shane Burgos.Granted, Kattar needed the right dance partner to produce that level of entertainment, but we can’t short him any deserved credit either.Either way, that’s twice that Kattar has come in as a sizeable underdog against a more physically talented opponent.Maybe I need to stop underestimating the Massachusetts native….Rob Font: Font had been developing a bit of a reputation as a front runner, being unable to overcome adversity.Though he was never in danger of being finished, Almeida began to take control of the contest at the end of the first.Font didn’t crumble, instead catching Almeida a couple of times befor