Francis Ngannou sees reflection of himself in Ciryl Gane at UFC 270 - "This is exactly me when I fought Stipe the first time"

Francis Ngannou stated in an interview that his recent fight against Ciryl Gane reminded him of his own bout against Stipe Miocic at UFC 220.

Speaking about the fight on The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani, 'The Predator' said:

"By the end of the fight, I [looked] at him and I saw me when I fought Stipe the first time. I was like this guy is done. Yeah, and he wasn't even and to listen to his coach, and he wasn't reacting. And I was like, he's done, this is exactly me when I fought Stipe the first time. That's the moment when I knew I win the fight...he was broken. I looked him in his eye, and thought, 'this is a done deal.'"

Francis Ngannou faced Stipe Miocic at UFC 220 when he challenged the Cleveland native for his heavyweight title for the first time.

Miocic imposed his wrestling skills on 'The Predator', avoiding his ferocious power and tiring the Cameroonian out to win by unanimous decision.

Ngannou, learning from the past, imposed the same wrestling pressure on Ciryl Gane at UFC 270 from the third round.

'Bon Gamin' was seemingly taken by surprise by the fact that Ngannou chose to grapple with him for most of the fight. The Frenchman had no answer to 'The Predator's' wrestling.

The gameplan ensured a unanimous decision victory for 'The Predator'. The fight also marked Ngannou's first title defense in the UFC.

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Francis Ngannou shares problems in setting up Jon Jones fight

Speaking further to Helwani, Francis Ngannou commented on his potential clash against Jon Jones.

When asked whether he saw Jones’ tweets wherein ‘Bones’ criticized his (Ngannou’s) UFC 270 fight, ‘The Predator’ stated:

“I think Jon Jones’ wheel is passing by like a car on the boulevard, so it’s really hard to follow.” The duo shared a laugh, and Helwani then asked whether ‘The Predator’ feels Jones doesn’t really want to fight him. Ngannou replied by saying, “I don’t know. At this point, I don’t know. And even though I would like to have that fight, like, at this time, I don’t want anything to be like a string attached. As long as I won everything, I don’t want anything to hold me into my principle to like, get me out – Yes, to like, take me off my position of what I want. Yes, the Jon Jones fight, but at what cost? What is the price that I have to pay for that fight? That’s the problem.”

Watch Francis Ngannou's conversation with Ariel Helwani in the video below:

Jon Jones seemed rather unimpressed by the heavyweight title unification matchup. Reacting to the Ngannou-Gane fight, ‘Bones’ posted a series of tweets which were deleted soon after. The tweets re-ignitined possible talks about the megafight between 'Bones' and Ngannou.

Jones has been out of action since vacating the light heavyweight title in 2020. However, he is expected to make his heavyweight debut in 2022 but no opponent has been finalized.