Rising UFC heavyweight Francis Ngannou has earned a reputation as one of the most dangerous men on the planet through his lengthy record of brutal knockout finishes. Now the fighter is set to face off for the UFC heavyweight title. Ngannou’s coach is predicting a murder, the death of UFC heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic.
Speaking on the MMA Factory, as provided by mmanytt.com, Ngannou’s head coach Fernand Lopez offered his thoughts on the upcoming title fight.
“People are far, far away from seeing Francis’ best,” Lopez said.. “There’s so much more that this guy is doing and I’m just like, Jesus, if people could see this.
“Sometimes you’re training a guy and you want to put these movements and these videos on the internet, but you can’t, because you don’t want to be selling everything.
:At the same time, when I’m sitting home alone, I’m just like, Jesus, you should see this. Spinning elbow coming from nowhere and spinning back kick, he can kill you with everything, his shoulder, everything he does is powerful. It’s crazy.”
“I think there are a lot of fighters in the UFC who we’ve never seen the best of because they’ve never had the opportunity to showcase the skills they have,” Lopez said.
“If you’re going to a decision every time you fight, you may have time to show everything, but this guy [Francis], he’s spent like one hour in [the cage in] his whole career.
“People really don’t know what this guy can do. Submissions, heel hooks, if you see this guy do a heel hook or guillotine someone, it’s crazy. He’s got a very quick, very nasty guillotine, very nasty heel hook. There are so many skills he can do.”
“I was talking about the elbow,” Lopez said, with a disbelieving look, a shake of the head and with a genuine tone of concern in his voice.
“When holding the pads, I’ve never felt so much elbow in my life. If Francis lands an elbow, I’m really afraid we have a problem, we may have a murder, like someone killing someone. It’s very heavy, very powerful.
“So yeah, I don’t hope the fight goes the distance just so he can show all his skills. I want the fight to end early, but if the fight does go a long time, we may see a lot of new things.
“Even if Francis doesn’t showcase all his skill in this fight, Francis isn’t going anywhere. He can be in the UFC for 20 years.”
Miocic and Ngannou will face off at UFC 220 on Jan. 20 inside the TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts. The event will be featured live on pay-per-view.
