The hatchet has finally been buried.
Ngannou vs. Lopez
That seems to be the case for coach Fernand Lopez and his heated feud with his former fighter, Francis Ngannou. The rivalry looks to come a close as they both near UFC 270.
The competitiveness will still be present between champions Ngannou and Ciryl Gane, but it will no longer be present between Ngannou and his former coach.
Ngannou and Lopez wouldn’t have the best parting of ways, as Ngannou left his gym in France to train at Xtreme Couture in Las Vegas. Since then, it’s been all hate between the two. However, entering fight week, Lopez put it to rest on ‘Submission Radio‘.
“I have two sons [Gane and Ngannou] and you want me to tell you who’s better than who. That gets me in trouble.” Lopez said. “The other son will say ‘oh, you see, he’s trying to pin me down again, he’s trying say bad thing about me again.”
“So, let it be. These two guys are very good guys. They are very good fighters, on the top of the world. I think there’s [Ngannou], who’s the strongest guy we can have, with the power. The other one is a computer, but still a heavyweight computer which is strong. I don’t want to compare them, because I might sound bitter and kind of salty. I don’t want to keep doing that.”
Lopez Is Sick Of It
Lopez’s past answers in interviews have garnered a lot of controversy over the years. When asked about Ngannou, he’d speak his mind without filter. In doing so, this would get headlines of him talking against Ngannou. Understanding this, Lopez will extinguish the fire he has helped ignite through the media.
“I’m totally sick. I’m tapped. I can’t do that anymore.” Lopez added. “The promise to be authentic is not an easy thing to do. Whenever you’re authentic, you’re gonna get in trouble at some point.
“I would like to speak about everything else, whatever you want. Golf, sports, whatever you want, but I know [the media is doing their] job. They have to go straight into what’s important, what makes people click. I totally understand that.”
Lopez Doesn’t Want To Sound Like An Ex-Wife
While coach Lopez considers himself to be an authentic person, he now refrains from generating any more headlines that would make his beef with Ngannou any bigger. Lopez was Ngannou’s manager and coach for a while, but he’ll leave the history and bad blood behind him, or so he claims.
“I don’t want to sound like the ex-wife who [can’t] let go because it gets split.”
