Fernand Lopez On Ngannou Hype: ‘If Francis Ran For President, He Would Be Elected… It’s Crazy’
The Francis Ngannou hype train is picking steam every day ahead of UFC 220 and the man at the helm of things is his coach, Fernand Lopez.
The head coach and founder of the MMA Factory Paris has been with Ngannou since day one of his MMA career and speaking at the in Paris last week, Lopez described what it was like being involved in a UFC heavyweight title for the first time and how his student has been receiving ever increasing amounts of attention.
“Let’s not lie, this is the biggest fight and belt in the world,” Lopez. “his is the biggest belt in the world because it’s the UFC belt. It’s the biggest division in the world and we’re talking about the baddest man on the planet. Out of 7 billion people, there’s only one. There are so many people going to Boston. So many people from the gym that are so excited.
“Here in France there are so many guys. I can’t tell you how many messages I received in my inbox. People are taking off from Africa [to see this fight]. This is crazy. Ngannou is taking off. I didn’t know it before. I didn’t know how powerful the Ngannou thing was until what happened after the Overeem fight. It was just crazy and I was like, oh my god. If this guy decided run for president he would be elected. There’s so many people in Africa cheering for him and so many people in France. It’s crazy!”
Ngannou will be out to prove on Saturday night that he’s worth all the hype and attention. After formulating the perfect setup to land Ngannou’s uppercut against Alistair Overeem, Lopez will no doubt play a key role in attempting to hand Stipe Miocic his first defeat since 2014.
“Yeah, actually there are a lot of traps,” Lopez said. “In the wrestling, there’s a trap. On the ground, there’s a trap. The way he’s working his ground game, there’s a trap. Of course, on his feet, there’s naturally a trap. Francis doesn’t even need me to help him. Naturally, Francis’ boxing, we love that in the gym, if you go to MMA Factory Instagram today (HERE), we posted a video of Cedric Doumbe, he’s the GLORY champion sparring. We like to breakdown whose trap was set up and which one. This is a game we love in the gym. When the training is finished we like to discuss about the traps we’re trying to set up.
“Francis, every time he is boxing, he will try to give you something. I’m so excited, even just talking about [the fight] for 30-seconds I feel it in my body. I want to be there now.”
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