Fernand Lopez has said quite a lot of things about Francis Ngannou leading up to his UFC 270 title fight against Ciryl Gane. Lately, he has been saying more positive things and getting honest.
Fernand Lopez admits it's going to be weird coaching against Francis Ngannou after their history together. They went through a lot leading up to UFC 270.
“It’s not often that you’re facing someone that you trained deeply,” Lopez told MMA Fighting. “That already happened with me at small stages. This is the biggest level of fighting ever and having a guy that I spent five years with, sleeping in the same room sometimes during some fight weeks, traveling the same flights, sitting by his side and translating for him when he didn’t speak English — and now his English is better than mine — to spend all this time with the same person is not something that’s usual.
“So it’s kind of weird to have him in front of me, to have to prepare against him. But again, it’s part of the job. It’s almost four years that I knew this would happen. I knew that as soon as Ciryl Gane signed at my gym, I knew this would happen. I have time to prepare for this a long time ago and it’s about processing so I have processed as I do with all of my fighters.”
Francis Ngannou will have the opportunity to show whether Fernand Lopez prepared the right gameplan against him at UFC 270. Many are seeing the matchup as power vs technique.
Follow Us
Subscribe