All the pressure is on Francis for this fight. He's up against someone who has already beaten him comfortably, is the champ and has become the consensus greatest heavyweight fighter since they last fought. Not to mention that if he loses, then he would have lost twice to the same guy. At that point, you know that they are simply better than you.
On paper, Stipe should win again, but Francis has that Wilder factor, which is that he makes up for what he lacks in skill with power. But can the power factor be mitigated again a la Fury? That remains to be seen. Comparatively speaking, Ngannou is more skilled than Wilder is. Francis is also tough as nails, and is hard to control, let alone finish.
From a technical standpoint, if he can show good ttd, he puts himself in a good position to win, otherwise it will be a very tough fight for him. The most important skill that will be tested is his cardio. If he doesn't put Stipe away early, then it will also be difficult to keep up with Stipe when the fight gets deep. Francis needs to utilize his kicks and not fall in love with throwing bombs. He has the advantage in every single physical metric, but Stipe is simply the more skilled fighter.
I think if Francis catches Stipe flush early it's lights out. I am going to go with Francis KO/TKO rd 2.