FRANCIS NGANNOU has claimed he by accident knocked out Ciryl Gane when the opponents have been sparring companions.
Ngannou defends his heavyweight title at UFC 270 over the weekend towards former team-mate Gane.
However their relationship soured after the Cameroonian champion left MMA Manufacturing facility in Paris in 2018 to arrange camp in America.
Now the previous friends-turned rivals are on the verge of settling the rating within the octagon.
And Ngannou claimed to have already got Gane's quantity, having knocked him out in sparring earlier than.
He mentioned on the UFC 270 press convention: “Sure, I knocked him out. (It was) a excessive kick, left excessive kick.
“That knockout wasn’t a voluntary knockout. It was in sparring. It was an accident. I didn’t intend to knock him out.
"I didn’t go there to knock him out. Personally, it’s not one thing that I really feel happy with.
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"I don’t stroll round and really feel all powerful as a result of I knocked my sparring associate out or down or no matter.
"Normally stuff like that occurs in coaching, but it surely’s at all times an accident as a result of we’re dedicated to taking good care of our associate.”
Ngannou was previously coached by Gane's head coach Fernand Lopez however the two have since been embroiled in a feud in recent times.
And Lopez earlier in January mentioned Gane, 31, dropped Ngannou, 35, with a physique shot in an unreleased sparring session.
The coach informed LowKick MMA: “He didn’t need me to launch the entire footage as a result of in that particular coaching, Francis Ngannou ate a knee shot to the liver and obtained dropped.
“Stopped the entire coaching. These are info. Francis was on his bottom. If he’s saying this isn’t true, I’ll launch the entire footage.
"However, my content material supervisor didn’t need to launch it as a result of we have now a privateness within the health club. When guys practice in your health club, they count on issues to remain within the health club.”
That knockout wasn’t a voluntary knockout. It was in sparring. It was an accident. I didn’t intend to knock him out.
Francis Ngannou claims knocked out opponent Ciryl Gane in sparring
Ngannou has been skilled in Las Vegas by coach Eric Nicksick in current fights however briefly returned to MMA Manufacturing facility in 2019.
It was there he shared the health club with Gane, however insisted it was solely briefly, denying the pair ever being buddies.
Ngannou mentioned: “We simply spent a couple of periods in three weeks. It was perhaps six periods of coaching, positively lower than eight.
"That was again in January 2019, as a result of after I fought Curtis Blaydes in China, I went again to Cameroon and on Christmas I had the Cain Velasquez combat.
"So, I couldn’t come again to Vegas in time to arrange a coaching camp as a result of the combat was on February seventeenth.
“I finished in France and skilled there for one month and on the time Ciryl was there coaching for his combat, I imagine.
"So, he left even earlier than I left. I feel it was three weeks earlier than I left to go for his combat.
"So after that, I feel it was February third, I flew to Phoenix, I used to be there two weeks earlier than my combat, and that’s it.”
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