“Not on the level of a Jon Jones fight,” Francis Ngannou comments about his title unification fight against Ciryl Gane at UFC 270

“Not on the level of a Jon Jones fight,” Francis Ngannou comments about his title unification fight against Ciryl Gane at UFC 270

Francis Ngannou, Jon Jones and Ciryl Gane

The UFC Heavyweight champion, Francis Ngannou will be defending his title for the first time against the interim UFC Heavyweight champion, Ciryl Gane at UFC 270. Ngannou has his first title defense lined up for the first pay per view of the year 2022 but it isn’t again someone whom he was originally expecting.

Since winning the Heavyweight title by defeating Stipe Miocic at UFC 260, Francis Ngannou has been seeking a super fight against the former UFC Light Heavyweight champion, Jon Jones. But after a series of incidents ‘The Predator’ is booked to face Gane on January 22nd.

In his latest interview with Ariel Helwani for MMA Hour, Ngannou admitted this fight isn’t that excited as Jon Jones’s fight.  Francis Ngannou says, “Not particularly, But it’s a good fight. You have to be aware of the danger of any fight, so it’s a fight, he’s a good opponent, but not on the level of a Jon Jones fight for example if that’s what you’re asking. It’s not the same thing.”

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Even after this fight, it is unsure that Ngannou will be getting any chance to face Jones in near future, due to his recent legal issues. Now it is unlikely that the promotion books a fight for Jon Jones until he solves his legal issues.

Talking about this Ngannou continued, “At this point, I don’t know much about what will happen in the future, I don’t stress about that. What will happen will happen. I wish that fight will happen, but I’m not sure about it anymore. It will be okay.”

“There are so many good fights out there if everything goes right, there’s so many fights that you can do and would be a good fight, so let everything go.” {h/t MMA Fighting}

Francis Ngannou sheds light on his issues with former coach Fernand Lopez

Francis Ngannou
Francis Ngannou

Francis Ngannou and Ciryl Gane shared one thing in common that they both are trained by Fernand Lopez in the early stages of their careers. It was Lopez who pushed Ngannou to join MMA and he is the one who coached Ciryl Gane to won the interim title.

Ngannou now trains with Erick Nicksick and the main reason he separated with Lopez was that he didn’t show appreciation to his coach. Talking about which Francis Ngannou added, “That’s exactly what I want to know, is to see where I did something wrong?”

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“Like I didn’t give credit? What did I do wrong? Last year, there was a campaign [for] a video of me saying ‘thank you’ and they found the video, [Lopez] promises $10,000 for whoever find the video, I don’t know if he give them the $10,000.”

Also Read: “Just do the interim without sabotaging me,” Francis Ngannou opens up about his recent issues with UFC leading to the interim title fight at UFC 265.