Ciryl Gane isn’t worried about Francis Ngannou’s power ahead of their heavyweight title fight at UFC 270 in January.
After Gane TKO’d Derrick Lewis at UFC 265 in August he became the interim heavyweight title to set up a fight with Ngannou. It’s an intriguing matchup and entering the fight Gane knows Ngannou has KO power, but he doesn’t worry about that, instead, he knows his movement and fight IQ will be the difference.
“This is not scaring me,” Gane told Submission Radio (via MMAFighting). “You see with Derrick Lewis, he had big knockout power too. Derrick Lewis is a beast too. But it was not a problem. When you look at the fight, I stayed inside like that with his punches. It was not a problem. A heavyweight like me, I can punch too like that with a big transfer But no, it’s not a problem for me. This is really not scaring me.
“I’m really confident in myself. When I started in Muay Thai too I was like that, because every fight in my career, in front of me, it was a man more experienced than me. Every time,” Gane continued. “And that’s why I was really confident that everything is possible, and I did it. So, today I think I have my chance too. He has his qualities, his strengths, I have mine. And we will see in January who can make his game plan better than his opponent.”
Ngannou vs. Gane will be a highly anticipated fight as a storyline is there. Gane’s coach is Ngannou’s ex-coach and the two have trained together in the past. However, for the Frenchman, he doesn’t think that will play a factor as he is just focused on the fight as he knows he will have his hands full. Yet, he remains confident he will get his hand raised and become the undisputed champion.
