The head coach of Ciryl Gane, who also happens to be Francis Ngannou’s former mentor, has revealed his initial problems with “The Predator.”
Francis Ngannou was once a part of the MMA Factory in France. There, Ngannou trained with Gane among others. Ngannou ended up leaving MMA Factory after suffering a unanimous decision loss to Stipe Miocic back in Jan. 2018.
Since that time, Ngannou has gone on to knock Miocic out in the rematch to capture the UFC Heavyweight Title. Meanwhile, Gane recently grabbed a hold of the interim gold with his third-round TKO finish over Derrick Lewis.
Fernand Lopez, the former coach of Ngannou, spoke to MMAFighting.com and revealed why he wasn’t too happy with “The Predator” at first.
“This is just to let you know, I don’t have any problem with my guy moving in another gym, People are really misunderstanding my point of view. I don’t have any beef on that. The problem that I had with Francis, which is over my head now, about recognizing people that helped you to grow a little bit.”
Lopez went on to say that he feels Francis Ngannou didn’t appreciate what he did for him during humble beginnings.
“Before going out with this, I went there to speak with Francis. Like Francis, is this normal? I was wondering is there any problem? We spent five years together in my gym. You never pay anything, everything is free for you. I took you under my wing, took care of you, everything. What’s so bad for you? What is so hard for you to say that ‘Fernand Lopez brought me the UFC contract.’ Why would you say to a journalist, they ask you how you got to to the UFC and you’re like ‘I was just fighting, I was winning fights and I got the call from the UFC.’
Do you think Francis Ngannou’s former coach has a point or does it sound like sour grapes?
