The big boys are back for the first card of 2022, in UFC 270. Taking place in Anaheim, Sunday 23 January, a fifteen-bout card has been announced, headlined by none other than Francis Ngannou and Ciryl Gane.
Former training partners, the two fighters know each other inside and out, which makes the headline even more mouthwatering.
In UFC 260, Francis Ngannou most recently competed back in March where he recorded a second round knockout of the infamous, Stipe Miocic, becoming the brand new heavyweight world champion.
But, due to Ngannou’s recent inactivity, Dana White and the UFC made the controversial decision to strip the belt from the champion and offer it up to Ciryl Gane and Derrick Lewis in the main event of UFC 265.
Ngannou has been famously unhappy about it, offering his thoughts regularly on the situation, and the unrealized superfight with Jon Jones many UFC fans have been begging for.
“The situation is what it is, but what I’m trying to do is not let anything step into (my mind) for the fight,” Ngannou told MMA Junkie. “At the end of the day, I’m not allowed to get distracted by anything. It will be on me if I get something wrong because I’m distracted by everything around. I signed up for this fight, so I better take it seriously and focus on it. It doesn’t matter what happens on the side. We’re going to deal with that after.”
“After” is when things could get very interesting for the champion. A superfight between Ngannou and Jon Jones has long been rumored to be in the UFC’s plans and earlier this year month Jones said he was targeting a return to the cage as soon as March. Such a fight would be an enormous opportunity but given the amount of times that bout has fallen through already, Ngannou isn’t holding his breath.
“Personally, I don’t really care about that anymore,” Ngannou said. “There’s a lot of talk about Jon Jones, he says a lot of things and yet we are still here. I wasn’t even expecting fighting someone other than Jon Jones after the Stipe fight but here I am, almost 10 months away and going to fight Ciryl Gane, which wasn’t in the picture, in the landscape at that moment at all. So what Jon Jones says and what Jon Jones does are two different things and I can’t bet on that. I can’t put my money on that. So I just do what I’m gonna do. We don’t know what the future is going to hold for us.”
Instead, Ngannou is keeping his eyes on the fight that is immediately in front of him. Gane is a former training partner with an undefeated record and an accomplished Muay Thai background. His run through the top contenders in the UFC harkens back to Ngannou’s own surge up the heavyweight ranks his first time around and many are saying that Gane is going to end Ngannou’s reign before it can get off the ground properly. But the champion is confident that his experience and skill will ultimately carry the day and that he will deliver the kind of devastating knockout that fans have come to expect from him.
“Undefeated opponent doesn’t mean anything,” Ngannou said. “For me, I think undefeated just means he has a lack of experience because it’s not the full experience. Losing a fight is a learning process, as well, so if you haven’t (been) there, you can’t understand something. I think that’s the thing. I have fought undefeated fighters before, so it’s not my first time. I know how it is. You can be undefeated, but when you get in that cage it’s just you and your opponent and nothing matters at that point...
“It’s going to be a very big night between Ciryl and me, because regardless (of the situation), they’ll promote this fight pretty good. You can’t take away his talent. He’s a good guy. He’s very talented. He’s a good contender. He’s a good competitor. I am ‘The Predator.’ I am the champion. It’s a pretty good matchup and what I do know for sure is that people are going to see a good fight, probably end up with some exciting knockout. It’ll be a good fight.”