Francis Ngannou's terrifying knockout of former UFC Heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic at UFC 260 made waves in NBA circles on Saturday night. It took less than two rounds for The Predator to exact revenge on Miocic and be crowned the new HW king and Baddest Man on the Planet.
Several notable NBA personalities took to Twitter to congratulate Ngannou after finally fulfilling his dream to become champion. Not a lot of people can dwarf a hulking specimen of a man like Francis Ngannou, but Shaquille O'Neal and Joel Embiid certainly made him look tiny in these throwback pictures:
Congrats to @francis_ngannou the NEW Heavyweight Champion of the World pic.twitter.com/PA4EnY9ZP0
— SHAQ (@SHAQ) March 28, 2021
JoJo even made sure to troll the new champ with this hilarious caption:
Don’t get it twisted… I would still take you ha. Félicitations!!!! @francis_ngannou pic.twitter.com/CszGHJTnoL
— Joel Embiid (@JoelEmbiid) March 28, 2021
Minnesota Timberwolves superstar Karl-Anthony Towns, meanwhile, had the same astonished reaction after watching Ngannou completely annihilate an all-time great like Miocic in such a sadistic fashion. These emojis captures what most fight fans felt after that devastating KO:
Oh My 😳😳😳 @francis_ngannou #UFC260
— Karl-Anthony Towns (@KarlTowns) March 28, 2021
Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert also congratulated The Predator in his native French. Francis Ngannou, after all, is a known multi-lingual who left Cameroon and moved to Paris when he was just 26 years old:
And Newwwwwwww @francis_ngannou !!! 🏆🙏🏽🇨🇲 La fierté!! #UFC260
— Rudy Gobert (@rudygobert27) March 28, 2021
It seems retired player Channing Frye has been watching a lot of anime these days, judging by this “One Punch Man” reference to Francis Ngannou's fight:
This is what i saw https://t.co/0K1kf8qMAr pic.twitter.com/gbtBoGiYF8
— Channing Frye (@channingfrye) March 28, 2021
However, it's this hilarious gem from another retired player Evan Turner that takes the cake:
I see a lot of me in Ngannou, no cap
— Evan Turner (@thekidet) March 28, 2021
NBA players, meanwhile, do enjoy watching a good professional scrap in their downtime. UFC 260 certainly lived up to the hype and more, as NBA players certainly appreciated Francis Ngannou's hard-earned crowning moment.