Francis Ngannou defeated Ciryl Gane at UFC 270 by dominating him throughout the fight. Ngannou showed his elite wrestling skills which surprised fight fans. However, Ngannou recently revealed that he wasn’t quite comfortable from the start of the fight.
However, after the third round, he started feeling confident in his grip on the fight. While talking to Ariel Helwani at MMA Hour about the same Ngannou stated:
“By the end of the third round I look at him I saw me when I fought stipe the first time. This guy is done. He wasn’t even able to listen to his coach, I was listening to his corner talk to him and he wasn’t reacting. I am like he is gone, this is exactly me when u fought stipe the first time. That is the moment I knew that I wanted to fight…He was broken, I look him in his eyes and was like he is a done deal.”
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What are the similarities between both the fights that Francis Ngannou talked about?
According to Ngannou, Gane wasn’t following the instructions coming from his corner. However, Francis was able to listen to that and that reminded him of the first fight against Stipe Miocic.
When Ngannou first met Miocic at UFC 220, Stipe demolished him as he took him down six times and kept his position better than Ngannou throughout the fight.
Comparing it with Gane’s case, certain similarities might be drawn. Ngannou took down Gane four times throughout the fight which includes one of the baddest slams in UFC heavyweight history. Ngannou showed Elite wrestling skills, didn’t lose position to Gane which is exactly what happened against Ngannou at UFC 220.
Fernand Lopez claims Ngannou didn’t follow the game plan at UFC 220 against Stipe Miocic. If that’s the case, then Gane sort of imitated the same scenario against Francis Ngannou.
However, Francis then moved to Los Angeles. So that he could be nearer to UFC headquarters and take advantage of the UFC’s Performance Institute and become the fighter he is today. As of now, Gane must be re-watching the fight and analyzing where he went wrong.
Fight fans must look forward to a strong comeback from the former interim champion. About Ngannou, his career at the UFC clearly looks dizzy. He is willing to walk away from UFC if they don’t provide him with what he wants