SHEER POWER Francis Ngannou Hit Curtis Blaydes So Hard He Closed His Eye Up And Then Only Took 45 Seconds To Knock Him Out In Rematch – talkSPORT

Francis Ngannou will have to bring all his power to the dance at UFC 270 on Saturday, but we’ve seen plenty of evidence of his game-changing power during his MMA career.

Curtis Blaydes has been on the receiving end of two Ngannou defeats. The second saw Blaydes stopped inside 45 seconds, but the first encounter between the two came to a premature close when Blaydes had his right eye shut thanks to the current heavyweight champion’s sheer power.

Remember, Ngannou holds the record for the hardest punch ever recorded. He has a record of 16-3 with 12 of those wins via knockout and eight of those came in the first round.

As UFC boss Dana White confirms: “His punches are equivalent to 96 horse power. That’s equal to getting hit by a Ford Escort going as fast as it can and it’s more powerful than a 12-pound sledgehammer from full force overhead. Holy s***.”

Blaydes found out all about the power in April 2016, in what was Ngannou’s second UFC fight.

In the process of trying to grapple the Cameroonian, Blaydes was on the receiving end of several blistering straights that left his eye in a truly sorry state.

That was Blaydes’ UFC debut and, quite rightly, the doctor intervened and said ‘no more’.

You have to say it was a sensible move by the referee. Fighting Ngannou with one eye and not being able to see where his big bombs are coming from is a disaster waiting to happen.

Ngannou is now looking to confirm his place as the undisputed heavyweight king, but must defeat his old sparring partner, Cyril Gane, at UFC 270 this weekend.

In his last five fights, Ngannou has won all of them via knockout with four of them coming in the first round. His last outing came last March when he knocked Stipe Miocic out in the second round.

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Gane has downplayed Ngannou’s power ahead of their contest, but The Predator was unmoved by his opponent’s dismissive comments.

“That’s probably his prediction because he has nowhere else to go,” Ngannou said. “He has nothing else to do.

“Instead of expecting to jump around and waiting for the decision, I’m sure he’s going to be like, ‘I’m going to take him to the long rounds, the deep water’ and all this. That can be his only prediction, which could be very contrary of my prediction, which is knocking him out.”