Francis Ngannou’s Coach Explains How Return To Roots Resulted In Recent Win

Francis Ngannou’s coach opened up on why he thinks the title contender returning to his roots was the reason for his latest win.

As seen in the headliner of UFC Beijing, Ngannou TKO’d Curtis Blaydes in 44 seconds in the first round of this heavyweight slugfest. The event went down on November 24, 2018 at Cadillac Arena in Beijing, China. UFC’s streaming service, UFC Fight Pass, aired the entire show. This was after he suffered two big losses.

First to then-UFC heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic at the UFC 220 PPV at TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts. Secondly, to Derrick Lewis at the UFC 226 pay-per-view event at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. Both of these losses came by decision.

Fernand Lopez, who is the head coach of MMA Factory in Paris, France, gave his take on his fighters’ latest win. This is when he stated in an interview that he thinks Ngannou coming back to the gym led to his recent victory.

He also brought up how Francis lost his two previous fights while training at the UFC Performance Center. Thus, they have plans to keep Ngannou at the MMA Factory in attempts to keep his career on track.

“Francis Ngannou did all his camps in Paris; he was winning all the fights,” Lopez told Bloody Elbow. “When he went to Vegas in PI, then he had the problem losing to Stipe. Then he had the second fight in the PI and he lost [to Lewis].

“We worked a lot to have this victory. We really did have a good camp. Two months of hard camp. We tried to work on everything on the mental side, on the conditioning, on the skills. The work paid off. He showed that he’s still there for a long time. He’s not going anywhere.”