After running through the UFC’s heavyweight division, capping off his dominant run with a quick KO over Alistair Overeem, Francis Ngannou apparently lost his mind.
He went and fought Stipe Miocic, losing that bout. Then returned against Derrick Lewis, hardly threw any punches, and lost that bout too.
Now UFC President Dana White has explained the situation in a new interview with MMAJunkie.com:
“Francis Ngannou at the time he was coming up, I believed this guy was going to be the guy, was going to be the heavyweight champion. He lost his mind. This guy completely lost his mind and started to act – I don’t know – in a way you just don’t act. I completely saw it coming. Obviously Francis Ngannou is a massive, strong, hard-hitting guy, and anything can happen when he gets in there, but Stipe had this thing where he feels completely disrespected. This guy’s always on fire and pissed off at the world and pissed off at us. I saw that coming. I knew he was going (to win).
“Francis Ngannou left the training center here (in Las Vegas) where he trained for previous fights, took off to France, was in France training or doing whatever he was doing leading up to the Stipe fight because he absolutely, positively knew he was going to be beat Stipe.”
