UFC: Michael Bisping urges Francis Ngannou to shelve boxing plans – ‘you’ve got to be careful’
- UFC heavyweight champ wants to transition into boxing, but commentator tells him to focus on imminent fight with Ciryl Gane
- ‘I think all of this could be a distraction,’ Bisping says – ‘Gane is a very, very tough opponent for any man’
UFC commentator Michael Bisping believes Francis Ngannou should be focused on his imminent fight with Ciryl Gane – not on a potential move to boxing.
Cameroon’s Ngannou, the UFC heavyweight champion, will defend his title against France’s Gane, his former training partner, in the main event of UFC 270 on January 22 in Anaheim, California.
The 35-year-old champion is in the midst of a heated contract dispute with the UFC, and has demanded that a new deal must allow him to compete in professional boxing, where he hope fights with stars like Tyson Fury, Deontay Wilder and Anthony Joshua await.
Bisping, who previously held the UFC middleweight title, believes Ngannou (16-3) would be wise to focus on the task at hand.
“I think all of this could be a distraction,” Bisping said in a video posted on his YouTube channel. “Ciryl Gane is a very, very tough opponent for any man.”
“You’ve just got to be careful,” he added. “You can say ‘I’m not being distracted,’ but that’s not how distractions work. Ciryl Gane is probably in the gym, in training camp right now, just thinking about Francis Ngannou, formulating a game plan. Then when you Google Francis Ngannou, it’s talk about contract, it’s talk about money, and it’s talk about boxing. You’ve got to be careful.”
Bisping claims to be a “huge fan of Francis Ngannou” and what the Cameroonian knockout puncher “brings to the table”. However, the former middleweight champion said he thinks Ngannou should consider the many differences between MMA and boxing before he commits to the move.