Tag: ufc 270

Ahead of his return at UFC 270 next month, heavyweight champion, Francis Ngannou has claimed that sparring footage released featuring himself and brief former teammate, interim champion, Ciryl Gane shows how good the MMA Factory Paris team is at “manipulation”.

Ngannou, who most recently headlined UFC 260 in March, seized the undisputed heavyweight throne with a second round thunderous knockout win over former two-time champion, Stipe Miocic in the pair’s title re-run.

However, scheduling conflicts prevented the Batié native from returning in August or September for a title rematch with recent headliner, Derrick Lewis, resulting in the introduction of an interim title.

Eventually scooped by the aforenoted, Gane in a third round knockout win over Lewis at UFC 265 in August – the undefeated Frenchman had set up an eventual unification clash with former teammate, Ngannou.

Francis Ngannou shares his thoughts on sparring footage between him and Ciryl Gane

The Cameroonian, who currently plys his trade at Extreme Couture in Las Vegas alongside head coach, Eric Nicksick, has a frosty relationship with past head trainer, Fernand Lopez to say the least. And believes sparring footage which has become more and more prominent of him and Gane recently, shows how manipulative the Paris-based team are at portraying Gane as the superior fighter of the two from the brief clip.

“When I saw the footage, my first reaction was laughing – because I know exactly what happened at those training sessions,” Francis Ngannou said on his YouTube channel. “But this is the thing: When they want to do some highlight, they always choose the part of the video that they use and they have a lot of videos like that because at the time, they were filming our training sessions to promote him (Ciryl Gane), his fight, and everything. So there was a lot of footage from those few training sessions, but a lot them never came out and will never come out, and I know for a fact that they will never come out.”

“It’s about to make him (Gane) look better and make me look bad – to prove that he’s the man,” Francis Ngannou explained. “I really get intrigued by (that) stuff sometimes and then how they just control people’s mind, conditioning them to think – and suddenly they just shift from one way to other way of thinking. And I’m like, how easy is that to manipulate people?… They’re really good at manipulation. But at the end of the day, as I said, we both know. Everyone knows for a fact.”

Whilst Ngannou has taken umbrage with the manner in which his training footage with Gane was portrayed, he still maintains his upcoming opponent is going to continue evolving in years to come, and become an even better fighter.

“He’s (Gane) good and he’s just going to get better,” Ngannou said. “He’s good. He’s talented, that’s for sure, and that’s the reason why he’s there, where he’s at. Right now? I’m just better, man, I’m just the man that’s going to stop the hype, and I can’t wait to get to this fight because what’s really funny about this is everybody that talks about this fight hype him up.” (Transcribed by MMA Junkie)

Reigning UFC heavyweight champion, Francis Ngannou has reflected on his decision to blank former head coach, Fernand Lopez, and brief former training partner, upcoming title challenger, current interim gold holder, Ciryl Gane during a less than cordial walk-by backstage at UFC 268 earlier this month.

Footage emerged across social media during the event of Ngannou, the promotion’s heavyweight champion who was in attendance to support Kamaru Usman, walk backstage past the trio of Lopez, Gane, and former MMA Factory teammate, welterweight contender, Nassourdine Imavov — appearing to purposely blank all three of his former associates.

However, Ngannou has revealed that his problem does not lie with either upcoming UFC 270 opponent Gane nor former teammate, Imavov, but with former head coach, Lopez — with the Batie native claiming he was unsure if he should interact with him, as well as claiming that his former mentor had been making disparaging comments about him to media.

“I felt like I didn’t want to say, ‘Hi’ for my sake,” Francis Ngannou told former two-weight champion, Daniel Cormier during a recent interview. “It’s been a couple of years now that he’s out there… I mean, like, yeah, I want to be nice. but when it is him in that position, I had a few thoughts. I’m like, ‘Ok, should I say hi?’ Then I’m like, ‘I don’t know’. I might got closer (sic) and say hi and then somehow, you’ll hear that I said, ‘this’, which is not what I said. Getting close to him was giving an opportunity for him. Not only the fact that I’m sure that he didn’t need me to say hi, but it was giving him the opportunity to say something again that I didn’t say. I’d rather stay in the distance. … It’s not like we’re friendly. He’s attacking me all the time. I can’t do that. I don’t feel like it.“

Ngannou then claimed that if he had spotted Gane solely backstage by himself, he likely would have spoken to the French native ahead of their title unification clash at the beginning of next year.

Francis Ngannou claims he would have spoken with Ciryl Gane if Fernand Lopez was not present at UFC 268

“The only thing that bothers me a little bit [was Gane]… and he was right,” Francis Ngannou said. “I would’ve been confused. Obviously, as his coach said, he’s naive. I would’ve been confused, too, because if… I walked by Gane, I would say hi. If it’s just him, I’d say, ‘Hi, what’s up?’” (Transcribed by MMA Junkie)

For Ngannou, the Xtreme Couture mover headlined UFC 260 back in March against two-time heavyweight champion, Stipe Miocic — finally clinching the undisputed crown with a thunderous second round knockout.

For the undefeated Gane, the undefeated striking sensation nabbed the interim heavyweight title back in August against common-foe Derrick Lewis — stopping the division’s most prolific knockout ace with a dominant, one-sided third round ground strikes stoppage.