UFC reportedly targeting pivotal heavyweight showdown for summer

Just two weeks ago, former UFC heavyweight champion Junior dos Santos found himself knocked out by Stipe Miocic in a failed bid for the UFC heavyweight title. Despite just being knocked out two weeks ago, the UFC is already apparently targeting dos Santos’ next fight.

Ariel Helwani has the scoop:

UFC would like to book Francis Ngannou vs. Junior dos Santos for the yet-to-be announced 8/19 PPV, per sources, but it's not done yet.

— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) May 27, 2017

As Helwani stated above, the UFC is now targeting #4 ranked heavyweight Junior dos Santos to fight #5 ranked Francis Ngannou in what will surely be a pivotal fight for both men.

While dos Santos is coming off a TKO loss to Stipe Miocic, Ngannou on the other hand has been terrorizing the UFC’s heavyweight division, going 5-0 in the UFC in just a year and a half, finishing all of his opponents within the first two rounds.

Most recently, Ngannou faced a big step up in competition as he faced former heavyweight champion Andrei Arlovski. It took just over 90 seconds and eight strikes for ‘The Predator’ to finish the former champ, marking the biggest win of his professional career.

The report from Helwani also targets August 19th as the targeted date for the dos Santos-Ngannou bout, which lines up with the timeline of the medical suspension handed to dos Sant after his loss to Miocic. Due to the loss, dos Santos was medically suspended until June 28th, which would ideally give him plenty of time to complete a training camp before fighting Ngannou mid-August. With that being said of course, following a KO loss, it isn’t uncommon for fighters to take time off from competing, such as when Robbie Lawler took a year off following his KO loss to Tyron Woodley.

Stay tuned for updates as they become available!

on 5/27/2017.