Paul Rouget, Media365: published on Wednesday January 19, 2022 at 3:58 p.m.
On Saturday night in California, Frenchman Ciryl Gane takes on Cameroonian Francis Ngannou, a former training partner in Paris, for the UFC heavyweight title. A shock at the top that makes the whole MMA planet salivate…
Ciryl Gane dreamed of playing this long-awaited fight against Francis Ngannou in France, where MMA is now legalized. But it won’t be this time. The clash between the two former training partners of the MMA Factory in Paris, the star fight of the evening of UFC 270 with the heavyweight championship belt at stake, will take place in California on Saturday evening, at the Honda Center in Anaheim. “This fight is insane: it is one of the best, if not the best duel between two heavyweights in history, ignited Dana White, the boss of the UFC, in an interview with BT Sport. One has incredible power, and the other moves like a middleweight, and is probably the most technical striker in heavyweight history. So I don’t think we can have a better match.”
They discovered MMA late
A feeling shared by many before this duel between two fighters who have in common their late discovery of MMA: the super-powerful Ngannou, who holds the record for the most powerful punch ever measured at the UFC’s performance institute, and the ultra-mobile and highly technical Gane, who came from Muay Thai and who moves like no one within its category. But beyond this clash of style, this fight is also that of the reunion between two men who had trained together several times, before the Cameroonian finally joined the United States. And the “Predator”, in open conflict with the UFC, has since been cold with his former trainer Fernand Lopez, who will be in the corner of “Bon Gamin” Gane on Saturday evening. In November, Ngannou had also ignored the native of La Roche-sur-Yon in the corridors of Madison Square Garden during UFC 268. And if the French took it badly, Ngannou then explained that he had nothing against Gane, but did not stop because of the presence of Lopez by his side.
Something to make the sauce rise, like this video of a sparring session between the two men unveiled by the MMA Factory, where we saw Gane take over Ngannou. A sequence of no importance for the former homeless, who asked that another video be broadcast of a training session where he would have inflicted a knock-down on the Habs … Subjects that may come out on Thursday, during the press conference between the two men. Anyway, Ngannou, winner of the UFC heavyweight champion belt after his revenge against Stipe Miocic in March 2021 and knockout specialist. violent and expeditious, promised to finish in the second round with the undefeated Gane, who took the interim champion belt in August against Derrick Lewis. Answer Saturday!
