UFC heavyweight Francis Ngannou finally responds to UFC president Dana White about venomous ego rant that he unleashed toward Cameroonian following UFC 226.
Following his lackluster unanimous decision loss to Derrick Lewis earlier this month, Ngannou receives criticism from Dana White, saying ‘The predator’s, ‘out of control ego’ was the main reason for his poor performance.
Even color commentator, Joe Rogan, called Ngannou vs. Lewis the worst heavyweight fight in the history of the promotion.
Francis Ngannou appeared today on the “Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show”, explained why his unwillingness to pull the trigger cost him the fight against Lewis and surprised by White’s comments. (Via MMAMania)
“In the cage, for that fight, I was just thinking about my body, scared about what happened the last time (against Stipe Miocic). It might happen again, and if that happened it’s no good,” said Francis. “So I tried to control it.”
Before the Lewis fight, Ngannou fought for a title fight against Stipe Miocic at UFC 220. Ngannous was completely gassed out in the final four rounds that give Miocic to take him to ground to en route to pick unanimous decision.
Ngannou admits he has an ego, but that’s not the reason for his downfall in his recent outing, but carried a fear from his last fight was too much to overcome. No doubt in the past, White has lashed out on many fighters for their lackluster performances. According to Ngannou, he never had any personal issues with White, nor had any contact with him since UFC 226, claiming he’s doesn’t’ agree with his recent comments.
“I don’t know what he means by that and I don’t know which people he is talking about. I think that is something you need to ask him. Only he can give you that answer. He never told me nothing,” revealed Ngannou. “Since my fight against Stipe I haven’t seen him, so I don’t know why he say that because he never told me nothing like that,” he added.
“I will agree I have an ego. You have to have that ego as a fighter because that is when you think you are better than the other one. You sit there and believe that, that is the ego,” explained Francis. “But not an ego to hurt anyone around you. Yes I have an ego, I know that. But not to hurt people.”
‘The Predator’ is still one of the top-ranked heavyweights in the world, said he needs one or two impressive performances to put the rough patch in the rearview.
He also lay out his immediate plans, hoping to return to Octagon before the year ends and name former UFC champ Junior Dos Santos, who’s coming off a unanimous decision win over Blagoy Ivanov at UFC Fight Night 133 on Saturday. Santos supposed to fight Ngannou at UFC 215 last year, but bout fell apart.
“I have no injuries,” Ngannou said. “This year I want to fight. Who I want to fight, exactly? I was supposed to fight Junior almost a year, 10 months ago. He just came back. Great win. So, maybe that one.”
Who’s interested in this showdown?
