Expect Francis Ngannou to employ a different strategy against Derrick Lewis at UFC 226

Back in January, in the main event of UFC 220, hulking French-Cameroonian heavyweight contender Francis Ngannou stepped into the cage with divisional champ Stipe Miocic, and promptly attempted to take his head off. Ngannou swung like he wanted to send Miocic’s head to settle amongst the mess of dead satellites in earth’s orbit, and when that failed do so, he swung some more.

Then, he got tired — which gave the champ Miocic to opportunity to get to work with his boxing and wrestling, and ultimately, capture a lopsided unanimous decision victory from his exhausted foe.

While Ngannou’s UFC 220 title fight didn’t go as planned, he won’t be making the mistakes that cost him in that fight again. Not even in his July 7th, UFC 226 showdown with fellow knockout artist Derrick Lewis — a bout many fans seem to look at like a guaranteed slobber-knocker.

No, Ngannou will not be throwing caution to the wind in his bout with Lewis. Instead, he plans to fight “smarter.” He plans to set traps, lure his foe into a position of danger, and then strike.

“A lot of things were messed up for the fight,” Ngannou said at a UFC 226 media scrum earlier this week (via MMAjunkie). “I’m trying to make sure that doesn’t happen again.”