Francis Ngannou says sparring videos with Ciryl Gane paint a false picture: ‘They’re really good at manipulation’

UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou says his former gym purposely didn’t release his full sparring videos with Ciryl Gane.

Fans got a glimpse of Ngannou’s sparring sessions with Gane more than three years ago at MMA Factory Paris, but Ngannou (16-3 MMA, 11-2 UFC) thinks the clips released were only trying to make Gane (10-0 MMA, 7-0 UFC) look good.

“When I saw that footage, my first reaction was laughing – because I know exactly what happened at those training sessions,” Ngannou said on his YouTube channel. “But this is the thing: When they want do some highlight, they always choose the part of the video that they use and they have a lot of videos like that because at the time, they were filming our training sessions to promote him, his fight and everything. So there was a lot of footage from those few training sessions, but a lot of them never came out and will never come out, and I know for a fact that they will never come out.

“It’s about to make him look better and make me look bad – to prove that he’s the man. I really get intrigued by (that) stuff sometimes and then how they just control people’s mind, conditioning them to think – and suddenly they just shift from one way to other way of thinking. And I’m like, how easy is that to manipulate people? … They’re really good at manipulation. But at the end of the day, as I said, we both know. Everyone knows for a fact.”

Ngannou’s rift with his former coach Fernand Lopez is well documented. Ngannou parted ways with MMA Factory Paris in 2018 and now that he’s defending his heavyweight title against his former training partner, interim champion Gane at UFC 270, the drama has ensued.

Gane is unbeaten in his pro MMA career and has looked nearly flawless in his octagon performances. He’s had a remarkably fast rise up the rankings, taking out the UFC’s record holder for most knockout victories, Derrick Lewis, to claim the interim heavyweight title at UFC 265.

Ngannou is aware of Gane’s skills, but with everyone super high on “Bon Gamin,” Ngannou can’t wait to remind everyone who the king of the division is.

“He’s good and he’s just going to get better,” Ngannou said. “He’s good. He’s talented, that’s for sure, and that’s the reason why he’s there, where he’s at. Right now? I’m just better, man, I’m just the man that’s going to stop the hype, and I can’t wait to get to this fight because what’s really funny about this is everybody that talks about this fight hypes him up.”

List

Twitter reacts to Ciryl Gane's dominant TKO of Derrick Lewis for interim belt at UFC 265