Head coach of Ngannous former gym, the MMA Factory, has recently spoken out after leaked footage of sparring with his next opponent went viral. Fernand Lopez, who has coached both Ciryl Gane and Francis Ngannou, responded to the footage and fired some shots at the heavyweight champion.
Before being kicked from MMA Factory, Ngannou trained with Gane. Since this, both have shared their sides of what happened at the gym before the champions departure. Lopez has publicly come out to speak about the sparring footage and other things that caused his falling out with “The Predator”.
Fernand Lopez on Francis Ngannou
Lopez says that Ngannou tried to prevent Gane from joining the UFC, the heavyweight champ has since denied this but in an interview with LowKickMMA, Lopez said this: “If Francis denied that he didn’t try to prevent the UFC from Ciryl, he’s a f*cking liar, Ngannou told me ‘coach… I had a meeting with Mick and he asked if Ciryl is ready for the UFC? And I said to him, he’s a good young kid, he’ll be good one day. But I told him he’s not ready yet.”
Lopez went on to talk about how he felt as though Ngannou spoke down on Gane, disregarded his abilities as a fighter and saw him as irrelevant. Lopez continued, “And I’m evil? How am I evil when I’m the one who called Joe Silva when you were 4-1 and got you in the UFC? I told him he could become a champion. He’s full of st. Francis Ngannou is full of s**t and has a victim mentality.”
UFC 270 will see these heavyweight behemoths collide. With more fuel adding to the fire, will Ngannou be more prepared than ever, or will Gane show just how technically great he is by avoiding the power of “The Predator” and proving he is the greatest fighter in the division?
What do you think about the comments thrown back and forth between Lopez and Ngannou? Who do you have coming out on top at UFC 270’s main event?
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