Francis Ngannou tells Ciryl Gane he “respects” him but promises they will have a “war” at UFC 270

Francis Ngannou is expecting a war against Ciryl Gane at UFC 270.

In the lead-up to the UFC 270 heavyweight title unification bout, Ngannou and Gane have taken shots at one another over their past training sessions. Both men claim they knocked down the other in sparring and given Ngannou’s feud with Gane’s coach, which is his ex-coach Fernande Lopez, it seemed as though Francis and Ciryl did not have much respect for one another.

Yet, after the UFC 270 press conference, the two men had their faceoff where they spoke French to one another. The video was captured by UFC Embedded where Ngannou and Gane shared some words including the heavyweight champion saying he respects him.

Gane: I’m happy Francis.

Ngannou: And no matter what you think, I respect you. Don’t let all that get into your head. We will go to war on Saturday. But, I respect you.

Gane: We will go to war. That’s right we will go to war.

Ngannou: That’s it.

Given the background and storyline between these two, it has only added to the excitement of the fight. Ngannou has one-punch KO power while Gane is the technical one and he told BJPENN.com, using his distance will be key to getting the win.

“The bigger problem I have with Francis is his power. He knows how to use it. That is why he is really dangerous and is confident with his power,” Gane said about Ngannou. “My first problem will be to manage the distance… I started MMA about four years ago. My plan was to manage the distance to escape the wrestling game, the ground game everything. Today that is my strength and that will help me against Francis.”

UFC 270 goes down on Saturday night from Anaheim, California where the heavyweight and flyweight titles are on the line. Stay locked to BJPENN.com for all results and all the latest news involving the card.

Who do you think will win, Francis Ngannou or Ciryl Gane?