UFC begins hinting at Francis Ngannou vs. Derrick Lewis matchup

In the wake of Derrick Lewis’ latest thunderous knockout win, which came against a gritty Marcin Tybura, fans immediately began clamoring for a matchup between him and fellow knockout artist Francis Ngannou.

From the looks of it, the UFC has been listening.

On Tuesday evening, the promotion posted on its official Twitter account, asking fans a very interesting series of seemingly rhetorical questions about this fight:

RT – if you want to see this fight next

FAV – if you want to see this fight next

COMMENT any letter, word, phrase, digit or symbol – if you want to see this fight next. pic.twitter.com/UhO6HiAZyJ

— UFC (@ufc) February 21, 2018

If you wondering how fans responded to this Tweet from the UFC, they’ve answered with more than 3,100 Retweets, almost 10,500 likes, and over 500 comments thus far. Needless to say, the collective answer sounds like a decisive “yes”.

Nothing is official just yet, of course, as the dust has barely settled since Lewis’ last win.

With his massive win over Marcin Tybura, Derrick Lewis rebounded from a tough loss to heavyweight legend Mark Hunt. This loss was preceded by six-straight wins over names like Gabriel Gonzaga, Roy Nelson, Shamil Abdurakhimov and Travis Browne. Lewis is now 19-5 overall.

Francis Ngannou, on the other hand, owns an impressive overall record of 11-2. In his last fight, he came up short in a heavyweight title bid against reigning champion Stipe Miocic. This decision loss to Miocic was preceded by a 6-0 start to his Octagon career: stoppage wins over Luis Henrique, Curtis Blaydes, Bojan Mihajlović, Anthony Hamilton, Andrei Arlovski and Alistair Overeem.

Who do you think comes out on top in a heavyweight slugfest between Derrick Lewis and Francis Ngannou? If this fight happens, which card would you like to see it land on? Join the conversation in the comments section.

This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 2/21/2018.