Francis Ngannou is confident he will be the one to derail Ciryl Gane’s hype.

Ngannou is set to defend his heavyweight title for the first time in the main event of UFC 270 against the interim champ in Gane. It’s a fascinating fight due to the fact the two used to train with one another and sparring footage has been leaked. Gane also enters the fight undefeated with a ton of hype on him, yet for Ngannou, he believes Ciryl is overhyped and will prove that on January 22.

“He’s good and he’s just going to get better. He’s good. He’s talented, that’s for sure, and that’s the reason why he’s there, where he’s at,” Ngannou said on his YouTube channel. “Right now? I’m just better, man, I’m just the man that’s going to stop the hype, and I can’t wait to get to this fight because what’s really funny about this is everybody that talks about this fight hypes him up.”

Gane is coming off a TKO win over Derrick Lewis to become the interim champ. Francis Ngannou, meanwhile, is coming off a KO win over Stipe Miocic back in March and has the one-punch KO power that makes him so dangerous.

Although Ngannou is confident he will derail the hype train of Gane he also admits he is mad with the fact their sparring match footage was released.

“It’s about to make him look better and make me look bad – to prove that he’s the man. I really get intrigued by (that) stuff sometimes and then how they just control people’s mind, conditioning them to think – and suddenly they just shift from one way to other way of thinking. And I’m like, how easy is that to manipulate people? … They’re really good at manipulation. But at the end of the day, as I said, we both know. Everyone knows for a fact,” Ngannou concluded.

Do you think Francis Ngannou will beat Ciryl Gane at UFC 270?