After Francis Ngannou defeated Stipe Miocic in the UFC Heavyweight Champion fight, everyone’s attention shifted to Jon Jones or Derrick Lewis as his opponent.
At the time, Lewis was riding a four-fight win streak and held a win over Ngannou, albeit in a very lackluster outing from both heavyweights. Jones was the UFC 205-pound’s longest-serving champion and undoubtedly the greatest mixed martial arts artist ever. He had been planning to move up from heavyweight.
Unfortunately, neither one of these fights was possible. Jones became stuck at an impasse with the UFC over his contract, so he was removed from the title talk conversation rather quickly, while Lewis ended up suffering a fourth-round TKO loss to Ciryl Gane this past August to become the UFC interim heavyweight champion.
While Jones was the main focus and Lewis had a win over Ngannou in the past, Eric Nicksick, Xtreme Couture’s head coach for Xtreme Couture, argues Gane is the more dangerous opponent of all three. He plans to fight “The Predator .”
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“Here’s a guy who carries this weight naturally in Ciryl Gane,” Nicksick told MMA Fighting. “He’s a natural heavyweight. We’re talking Jon Jones, who’s now trying to put weight on to get up to that heavyweight division, and how’s that going to look for him when it comes to understanding the body mechanics and the cardio and all those little things? Really, the one time you’re going to figure that out is in the cage.
“Obviously you can have sparring and everything else, but for him to figure this out on the fly, for Jon Jones to move up to heavyweight and feel what the heavyweight power feels like, the movement, all those things, I think it’s a tall task for him. So when you look at the guy who’s probably best suited for this heavyweight division right now to fight for the title, it’s got to be Ciryl Gane, in my opinion.”
Jones undoubtedly possesses more career achievements than Gane, but he’s also never competed before at heavyweight, and that division presents a whole new set of problems that don’t necessarily exist when fighting at 205 pounds.
To add to that, Nicksick views Gane as a special kind of heavyweight, thanks largely to the way he moves inside the octagon combined with defensive capabilities that have kept him from taking much damage on the feet since his UFC run began.
“I think it’s just kind of that new puzzle,” Nicksick said of Gane. “When you see ‘Wonderboy’ [Stephen Thompson] hit the division, you’re like how is anybody going to beat this guy, and it’s going to take a while to really understand him. It’s like that in football. You get that new offense. Pistol comes out — well, how do we stop the pistol? It takes a little while to understand it and start breaking it down. And slowly but surely, people start understanding how to attack it. I think it’s kind of the same way when you see Ciryl Gane.
” For me, movement in the heavyweight division is something you don’t get to see. This type of movement. This type of athleticism. It’s a completely different kind of athleticism than what we have seen before. It’s possible to beat it, but for now, I believe he is probably the most talented guy we have seen in quite some time .”
Because Gane can end the fight in just one shot and is so dynamic, Nicksick understands that winning at UFC 270 requires that Ngannou be ready for everything.
Of course, Ngannou still possesses the kind of power where even a glancing blow could take off an opponent’s head, but Nicksick believes the matchup with Gane will finally allow the world to see all that the UFC heavyweight champion has been adding to his arsenal in recent years.
” I don’t believe you can just come in there thinking, “Hey, we’re going put out his lights and I’m going touch him.” Nicksick stated. Would you be shocked if this happened? No. He’s the most difficult hitter in the entire world, pound for pound. Ciryl isn’t hit very often, however. Ciryl doesn’t seem to get squared up very often. I haven’t really seen him get dropped or really wobbled. You’re wasting your time if you think we are going to just find him in chaos, and then we’re going hit him on his chin and knock him out.
“I think you have to have smart angles and elements on how you can create that hand drop or find him to the body, or get back upstairs or threaten a takedown. You’re going to have to blend a lot of this stuff in there. This is because I think this man is very good. But I understand that power .”
doesn’t guarantee that someone will be knocked out.
Make no mistake, Nicksick heaps praise on Gane because that’s how seriously he’s been taking this fight since the French heavyweight knocked out Lewis and earned the title shot.
Nicksick is well-aware of Ngannou’s talent and the drive he has shown to improve in all aspects of their game.
In other words, if you thought Ngannou was scary before, just wait until you see what he does next.
“I really feel like he’s just scratching the surface and getting to understand who and what he’s actually capable of,” Nicksick said. “That’s pretty scary to think, because he’s already got the belt.
“Now, we get through Ciryl Gane, I could see him winning another four or five in a row and possibly fighting Ciryl Gane two or three times in our career as well. I think that division, the landscape, if Francis is on top of that, I think he’s going to consistently get better over time, and you saw that with Kamaru Usman since he’s been champion. I think every time out, he’s been getting better and better.”
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