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Fernand Lopez Says Him and Francis Ngannou Had an Argument Right Before They Split

Published 11/16/2021, 2:36 PM EST

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Francis Ngannou is arguably one of the strongest fighters in the sport of MMA. The Cameroonian fighter is currently the UFC heavyweight champion. “The predator” is famed for his ability to put his opponents to bed with his fast and powerful strikes. Ngannou’s fights are always entertaining and exciting. 

Even though Ngannou has done wonderful things for society, such as launching his own MMA club in Cameroon, there aren’t many wonderful things being said about him in the press. 

Francis Ngannou split up with his former gym, MMA factory, in 2018 following a fallout with his former coach Fernand Lopez. Recently Fernand Lopez appeared on The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani and revealed some shocking news about the ‘Predator’. 

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Fernand Lopez told Ariel Helwani that, Ngannou said, “I’m the one bringing the life in the gym. I should not pay any membership” Lopez told Ngannou. “I mean you must be crazy like you spend four years on your life for free in my gym.”

“Now that you are not poor anymore and as I keep bringing poor guy in my gym. There’s around 40 guy homeless in my gym. Poor people that I’m taking care of. 600 euro per year one year and he said, no, I will not pay. So I said, ‘You know what? You don’t listen to me anymore when I’m giving the class. You choose the easy way to train. Please, let’s just split.’ And we did.”

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Fernand Lopez’s backstage incident with Francis Ngannou

Francis Ngannou ran into his former team after the highly exciting UFC 268 and totally snubbed them. The incident occurred behind the scenes, backstage at the Madison Square Garden. Fernand Lopez was accompanied by teammates Ciryl Gane and Nassourdine Imavov. Francis Ngannou was seen walking towards his former team and walking away without acknowledging their presence.

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The footage went viral on the internet, and Ciryl Gane Gane also responded with his own thoughts on the situation. This backstage incident is likely to escalate the animosity between the former teammates, who are soon set to fight each other. The two heavyweights will battle it off to unify the UFC heavyweight championship at the highly anticipated UFC 270.

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Written by:

Pranit Punjabi

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Pranit Punjabi is a UFC author at EssentiallySports. A third-year psychology major, this Khabib Nurmagomedov fan merged his interest in psychology with his deep passion for MMA and was intrigued by this new angle to help him get closer to the action. Pranit aims to look through the violence and chaos, into what makes MMA truly beautiful, the deep and rich psychological aspect of the game.
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