I am still baffled that some people on this site don’t understand why Ngannou is being criticized. Let me clear this once and for all.
If you are someone who had been following MMA media since last year, you would know that Ngannou was doing media tours before and after Stipe’s third fight with DC, expressing his frustration that Stipe was holding up the division. He was doing it when he knew for certain that he would be fighting for the title next. My guess is he wanted to get Stipe to fight as early as he could so that the damages sustained would still be in effect. Anyways, skip to this year, Ngannou wins the belt quite spectacularly and the narrative around the media is that we now have a champion who will defend his belt against anyone at anytime. Why? Because Ngannou was criticizing Stipe who was defending his title as frequently as any other former champions before him. Ngannou placed himself to be judged at another standard. This is why people are calling him out. Also, I would wait until some more details come out. Ngannou and his team are quite media-savy. I would not be surprised if they are quibbling. Making an interim title fight implies, Ngannou did just enough to put UFC executives under the impression that he’s refusing to fight.
