“Greatest threat to Francis,” Chael Sonnen claims Ciryl Gane was not supposed to fight Francis Ngannou ahead of UFC 270
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Ciryl Gane- Chael Sonnen- Francis Ngannou
MMA Legend Chael Sonnen has not been much intrigued by the way the heavyweight title unification fight at UFC 270 between the undisputed champion Francis Ngannou and interim-champion and Ngannou’s former training partner, Ciryl Gane has built itself up in storyline or promotion as much as he is excited about how the fight goes down when the cage gets closed come Saturday night.
However, Ngannou’s former and Gane’s current coach Fernand Lopez of MMA Factory, France, has made storylines through his story of partial enmity with Ngannou for various reasons and has also released sparring footage between Gane and Ngannou back in the days when Ngannou was a part of MMA Factory, which adds up to the storyline quite a lot.
But for Sonnen, “the most compelling” part of this fight between Gane and Ngannou is not within Ngannou’s history with Gane’s coach, but surprisingly in the betting odds of the fight. It was only recently when Gane replaced Ngannou and suddenly became the betting favourite to win over the latter. He explains all of this through his video on Youtube.
Chael Sonnen believes that Gane vs Ngannou is happening because Ngannou vs Lewis rematch never happened
Sonnen was certainly intrigued yet left shook by the betting odds going in favour of Gane over Ngannou leading to the main event of UFC 270, which means the majority of the betting fans across the world think that Gane is going to win. “It’s very close money we’re talking about, we’re talking about -120 here, it’s damn near dead even, but it does favour one guy and that’s Ciryl,” said Sonnen.
“I asked you right now, can Francis beat Jon Jones, Daniel Cormier [MMA Legend, former 2-division UFC champion] said hell yes he could, can Francis beat Cain Velasquez, Stipe Miocic… if I just went through the whole list you would say yes, yes and yes,” he continued. “So if we have an acknowledgement that Ciryl, at least within the betting public’s level of psyche… is the greatest threat to Francis, that’s where the whole story comes from…“
“… Because Ciryl shouldn’t be here… if the bettors are right and Ciryl beats Francis, Francis has now lost to a guy, who he never would’ve had to fight [only had Ngannou didn’t turn his fight against #3 Derrick Lewis down back in August 2021 after which Gane capitalised over the situation and came in to fight for and eventually win the interim title]” Sonnen concluded.
What do you make of Sonnen’s unique assessment of the build-up of the fight and how do you see the storyline of this title fight otherwise? Do you think Sonnen is right about the public perception about Ciryl Gane being Francis Ngannou’s greatest threat? Who do you have it winning between Ngannou and Gane?
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