Francis Ngannou has been vocal lately when it comes to his relationship with the UFC. His relationship soured after he became heavyweight champion.
Part of that is because Francis Ngannou doesn't feel that the UFC is behind him anymore. That mostly came into play when an interim heavyweight title was introduced just a few months after he became champion.
Ciryl Gane fought Derrick Lewis for the interim title at UFC 265. The Frenchman would win by knockout in the later rounds.
Francis Ngannou appeared on The MMA Hour and discussed the subject. He believes Gane deserves to be where he is at today:
“He deserves it,” Francis Ngannou said. “He deserved to win the fight. He had a very good fight, a very good run. I do not have a problem. My only problem is that they want to discredit my title. That’s the only problem, but I can not control what other people do… You cannot blame him for anything. He did everything right”
The problems aren't with Ciryl Gane, who has been working hard and making the most of his opportunities. The issues are with the UFC and how they marketed UFC 265:
“The only issue is how — because on my end, I know that was the way to apply pressure — it didn’t seem right,” Francis Ngannou said of the marketing ahead of UFC 265. “I find it so awkward that it didn’t even bother me. I’m like, what’s going on? OK, let’s do it. What bothers me is the fact that to promote that fight they were trying to discredit me and pretend, ‘If you want to go on vacation, keep yourself, and when you want to fight, we are here.’ No, I want to fight and I wasn’t on vacation. And they use a video from Embedded to play that game, to pretend to discredit me and show that I was on vacation.
“That bothers me because that’s not right. I know that is not true, it’s just to discredit me, to control the narrative. I don’t have a problem if they want to do the interim, just do the interim without sabotaging me.”
Francis Ngaanou is currently set to return at UFC 270 against Ciryl Gane in January. The bout will be the unification of the two heavyweight belts.
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