“I thought that was a bait”- Head Coach Fernand Lopez warned Ciryl Gane against going after Francis Ngannou’s knees at UFC 270
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Francis Ngannou vs Ciryl Gane
Francis Ngannou defended his undisputed heavyweight belt against the interim champ, Ciryl Gane at the main event of UFC 270. It was a tough night for the champ, as he was dealing with all those contract negotiations with the UFC, and apparently a knee injury he sustained during the fight camp.
Ngannou came out with both his knees wrapped, and his head coach Eric NickSick revealed that he sustained it when a heavyweight sparring partner tried to take him down, talking to Ariel Helwani at MMA Hour, he said, “It was 3 and a half weeks ago I believe, it was during sparring. Ali had a big heavyweight come in town, he was a guy that was going to be on contenders, we worked with him on Monday, on more of a grappling day, he was a great training partner and had a great look on Francis and on Tuesday Francis was doing Southpaw. Francis was kind of pissing him up a little bit, I could tell the guy was getting anxious, so the guy shot a very very low single.“
“It wasn’t like him trying to be mean or anything like that…but it was very low, went on Francis’ lead leg which was his right leg being a southpaw and with the shin pads and knee pad on, his knee kind of buckled funny… but… we actually finished up the rounds and we went to the PI and got looked at the next day, he had an MRI and it was a full MCL tear and he had damage to the ACL as well…“ said Nicksick.
“I told Ciryl, don’t go kick a blank low kick“- Fernand Lopez warned Ciryl Gane to not get knocked out by Francis Ngannou
Ngannou’s former coach Fernand Lopez wasn’t buying into his injury, and he asked his disciple, Gane not to go for the leg kicks, talking to Ariel Helwani he said, “I don’t buy this, Don’t go for the low kick. I don’t believe Francis is hurt. He will counter you.”
“I told Ciryl, don’t go kick a blank low kick,” Lopez said. “You will get knocked out by Francis. Don’t kick down. Stay on the kick that we’re using.” The game plan didn’t turn out really well for Gane, and he got taken down by Ngannou, and to everyone’s surprise, Ngannou actually dominated him to retain his belt.
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Suryansh Thakur
(1600 Articles Published)