Most fighters change, evolve, and adapt to earn title shots or become champions. That’s a fact that’s not even specific to fighting. That’s just life. Once upon a time, I used to stretch before football practice. Now I stretch carefully in the morning just to avoid aggravating my back.
Francis Ngannou is getting his second crack at the heavyweight title. To get there, he beat Jairzinho Rozenstruik with the kind of combination someone might throw when a fly interrupts their egg-beating.
And if we simply had the Rozenstruik win to go on, it would be difficult to say whether Ngannou had improved enough to beat Stipe Miocic.