UFC heavyweight contender Ciryl Gane has explained why he’d only want to fight Francis Ngannou if a title is on the line.
Gane was able to improve on his undefeated record in mixed martial arts this past weekend as he took out Junior dos Santos at UFC 256. With such a big name on his resume, many believe that it’s time for him to take an even bigger step up in competition.
However, if it’s going to be his fellow countryman Francis Ngannou that he fights, it has to be under a certain condition – as Gane himself confirmed in a post-fight interview.
“(I’m calling out) Nobody,” he said (via MMA Junkie). “You understand who I am. Anyone, anywhere. I just want to do my job. That’s it.
“I think if the UFC does this, please do this for the belt. That’s it,” he added, when pressed about a fight with Ngannou. “Because, you understand, we’re from the same gym, the same coach.”
Gane is referencing the fact that both he and Ngannou have trained at the MMA Factory gym in Paris under Fernand Lopez, and as we all know, fighters aren’t huge fans of battling their teammates.
On the flip side, Ngannou still seems to be focusing most of his attention on Stipe Miocic— who he believes has been holding up the division.
“It’s been a lifetime [since I last fought],” Ngannou told MMA Fighting. “It’s still kind of like frustrating even though I’m trying to take it out of my mind knowing that I can’t do nothing to change it. Even before fighting [Rozenstruik] in May, I’ve been through this same story, this same situation and it got me ready to face it again. I was waiting for Stipe and [Daniel Cormier], who was in August and obviously I was expecting something in December. That’s why after their fight, I just came back from Cameroon expecting maybe sometime in December because it’s four months away, or maybe January at the latest, I might have a fight.
“Obviously, now I don’t know. What I know, they just said March but it’s not official. Who knows. Who knows how that will play out.”
Do you think we’ll see Ciryl Gane and Francis Ngannou fight down the road?