Francis Ngannou had no intention of his words being lost in translation while answering questions from a couple of French journalists at the UFC 270 pre-fight press conference on Thursday.
After calling France home for several years, Ngannou moved to Las Vegas and began training at Xtreme Couture. In the lead up to his fight against Ciryl Gane this weekend, Ngannou was flooded with questions about the time they trained together as well as his past at the gym based out of Paris.
While Ngannou admitted to training with Gane, he didn’t consider him a teammate because of the time that they spent under one roof.
” That was in 2019 when we trained together, and you can ask Ngannou.” I moved back to Vegas in 2017.. April 2017, Officially, I moved to Vegas. Just returned from France. I stopped by for a while, then we trained together. But I came back to Vegas .”
Ngannou was then asked if he “brainwashed”, his time at MMA Factory from his memory, as if “it doesn’t exist anymore .”
“.
“Of course I can recall that but I wasn’t in the MMA Factory that’s what I’m meaning,” Ngannou countered. “Now I’m not in the MMA Factory, do you get that?”
Later in the press conference another reporter was asking Gane to respond to a quote from Ngannou where he called former heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic his toughest opponent.
Unfortunately, the reporter misunderstood the situation. Ngannou called Miocic the toughest opponent while Gane’s matchup would have been “pretty easy”.
Ngannou definitely didn’t take too kindly to that particular wording, especially when it made it sound like he was disrespecting Gane as an opponent.
“Excuse me, sir, where did you read that I said Ciryl is a pretty easy fight?” Ngannou asked. “I’m very confused. “You said I told you that .”
The reporter attempted to rectify his statement before eventually apologizing for mixing up his words regarding Ngannou’s original statement about Miocic and Gane.
“Did I say Ciryl is an easy fight? Did I ever say some fight is an easy fight? “Did I ever say that?” Ngannou asked the reporter. “I’m just quoting you. The toughest means the most difficult, or more challenging than others. Toughest. Toughest. My friend, that’s no easy fight. If you ever fought in your life, you would know there is not an easy fight.
“Please be precise when asking questions, unless there is something you are trying to convey .”
Anaheim’s audience reacted loudly to this as Ngannou made it clear that he was not in the mood to misquote Gane in relation to their upcoming fight.
Regardless of that exchange, Ngannou will look to put all the drama related to this fight behind him when he faces off with Gane in the UFC 270 main event on Saturday night with the winner being declared the undisputed heavyweight champion.
