Francis Ngannou Unloads on Ciryl Gane’s Current Coach

The reigning UFC Heavyweight champion, Francis Ngannou, did not have an easy journey towards the UFC gold. His journey from mining sands in Cameroon to his valiant escape to Europe and discovery of MMA would make for a brilliant documentary.

The 35-year-old fighter learned the ropes of the sport at the MMA factory located in Paris. He left this gym, later on, to pursue greener pastures in the USA, and incidentally, Ciryl Gane also trained out of the same gym.

There is no legitimate rivalry or bad blood between the two, but a fallout with Ciryl’s coach Fernand Lopez has made things intriguing. In the latest interview, the heavyweight champion shed light on why he is keeping his distance from Ciryl’s coach.

Francis Ngannou doesn’t want Ciryl to have an advantage ahead of their clash at UFC 270

The Nigerian fighter sparked a major row with the challenger’s team as he ignored Ciryl and his former coaches at UFC 268. Now after several weeks later, he has finally opened up about his decision and why he refuses to interact with his former teammates.

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Ngannou said, “He’s been on me for so long, picking on me for so long. And he’s trying to even like attack. He is trying to snake bite people around me to get to me, which is very nasty. And Personally, somebody like that, I can deal with you know? Even though I can’t, I don’t take him as an enemy, but I have to be very careful. Because I know the person, I know the kind of person, I don’t wanna give him a chance to get any closer.”

“You know, because that’s how he gets the opportunity to come to the end of what he wanna do, which is like harm you or hurt you. So I might not hate him, but I will not be getting myself so close to him knowing he doesn’t have a good intention.”

Francis’s journey hasn’t been easy at all and he knows how hard the road back to the title shot truly was. This is why the champion doesn’t want to take any chances with his next opponent and is keeping his distance from controversies. It will only allow him to focus his energy and time on preparing for his first title defense.

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