UFC 226 was full of great fights. With the exception of one of the most anticipated ones not panning out at all how we expected.

That fight being, of course, the heavyweight clash between usual knockout artists, Derrick Lewis and Francis Ngannou.

The fight wound up being one of the most uneventful in UFC history and one that will be remembered for all the wrong reasons…if it gets remembered at all.

UFC President Dana White would place the blame majorly on Ngannou and his ‘out of control ego’. Something that really could be determined as an unfair claim.

Today on The Ariel Helwani MMA Show Ngannou also expressed how he disagrees with White’s claim and was a bit confused by it.

“I don’t exactly know what he means by that, I don’t know who he means,” Ngannou said, “If someone has an issue with you and doesn’t tell you, how would you [react], if you haven’t seen him or talked with them? If you have an issue, tell me.

We are all human. I don’t necessarily agree I have an ego. I’m never one to stay down when I fell down. You have to have that ego when you’re a fighter. You have to stand there and believe you’re number one. That’s ego. But not the one to hurt the people around me.

We haven’t spoke together. I don’t know why. If he had something to say he would tell me.”

The loss to Lewis marked Ngannou’s third of his 14 fight career and his second straight after challenging for the heavyweight title in January. All three of Ngannou’s losses have come via unanimous decision.

This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 7/16/2018