Francis Ngannous match mot Stipe Miocic gick inte som kameruniern tänkt sig. Efter vilda attacker mot mästaren i den första ronden – men med utebliven knockout – dominerades Ngannou på marken av Miocic under den största delen av de nästkommande fyra ronderna.
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I en exklusiv intervju med MMAnytts Jim Edwards uttalar sig nu Ngannous tränare Fernand Lopez om förlusten, som var ”The Predators” första sedan intåget i UFC. Han berättar hur han förvånades över att Ngannou inledde direkt med en hög spark mot mästaren:
“Francis let out everything in the first round and after that, he had nothing left, but he still kept going. The first round was incredible and if every round was like that it would’ve been one of the best fights ever, but these are two heavyweights and that was never going to happen. He did a good job to hang there, but I won’t lie, I was disappointed. When I saw Francis rush in and throw a high kick, I was shocked,” säger Lopez.
”Måste ha varit hans dröm”
Lopez fortsätter med att berätta att det var omöjligt att göra något för honom som cornerman. Han berättar att matchplanen var att undvika Stipes brottning, hålla sig på avstånd och använda sig av kombinationer – snarare än att börja svinga vilt direkt.
Tränaren berättar också att han inte har pratat med Ngannou sedan förlusten, något han planerar att göra när två veckor har gått.
“That wasn’t at all in the gameplan. That must’ve been Stipe’s dream. Have someone rush him and try to take his head off. That made it easy for him to change level and get the takedown. As a cornerman, you simply can’t do anything. The gameplan was to manage the range and throw some combos, but be cautious and to step back out and keep the distance so he couldn’t bring his wrestling. That didn’t happen.”
“I’ll be honest, I’ve not talked to Francis about it yet,” fortsätter Lopez. “I don’t like to have a debrief straight after the fight. I like to have two weeks to let the fighter think and digest the fight. When he’s ready, two weeks later I’ll talk with him and try to understand why he went for that gameplan and that strategy. I didn’t expect what happened. The gameplan was so different, but Francis just went rushing after him, hunting him and yeah it just wasn’t what we had planned.”
Höll ut i 25 minuter
Tränaren passar också på att ge en rejäl känga till de som påstår att Ngannou inte tränade någon grappling inför titelmatchen. Att Francis klarade 25 minuter mot mästaren utan att bli submittad säger allt, menar Lopez.
”People say that Francis did not prepare for wrestling and grappling enough during the camp, but that’s false. He hung there for 25-minutes with no gas in the tank and didn’t get submitted, so he showed everyone he knew what he was doing. People also forget that he also went for a heel hook in the fourth or the fifth round, I forget, but it made Miocic abandon his ground attack and Francis was able to stand up. People saying Francis not being prepared for wrestling or the ground game are wrong. That wasn’t the issue,” menar Fernand Lopez.
“The issue was the range management and the distance management in the fight. Francis needed to choose the range to fight and it didn’t happen. Whenever Stipe moved in, Francis should’ve moved back to maintain the distance. As soon as he chose to hunt and chase Stipe, it was a mess. Without any footwork it was over,” avslutar Lopez.
Läs mer: Stipe Miocic skriver UFC-historia – Dominerar Francis Ngannou fullständigt
