Francis Ngannou thinks Ciryl Gane had a cherry-picked path to a title shot.
Francis Ngannou is the UFC heavyweight champion. He defended his title successfully against one of the toughest opponents available in Ciryl Gane and has once again proven that he is the best. Ngannou had to prove his skills through a tough road to becoming UFC champ. He lost some, won some more, and worked his way to becoming the “baddest man on the planet.”
Now that Ngannou and Gane have fought and Ngannou came out on top, he is being a little critical of Gane’s path to the title fight.
“You don’t usually get into the UFC and get to fight for the title without fighting a wrestler. That’s the rule. In this case, he seems like he was protected. They were protecting him, and they were just hyping his striking style. This isn’t a striking game. This is a fighting game,” Ngannou said on his YouTube Channel (via MMAWeekly).
Gane has just ten fights on his professional MMA résumé. His only loss so far was the fight with Ngannou. In his UFC career, Gane has faced seven opponents before facing Ngannou, those seven have a combined 171 professional fights, and only a combined 10 submission victories.
As for Gane himself, he holds three submission victories in his career. Ngannou was making the point that the UFC was trying to shed a spotlight on Gane’s striking power, instead of testing him on the ground. However, Gane has proven that he can submit when needed. In fact, his first two wins in the UFC were by submission.
In their fight, Ngannou was able to take Gane to the ground twice and control the action for a bit. Ngannou is best known as a striker himself but was able to use the ground game in his bout with Gane.
Ngannou showcased a well-rounded game plan in the win. He will be out of competition for an undisclosed amount of time, however, now that he will need to heal up from a lingering knee injury. As for Gane, he could be back in action later this year.
Do you think the UFC tried to steer Gane away from facing wrestlers?