VIDEO | Francis Ngannou’s Coach is Genuinely Scared of His Unseen Skills

The danger of Francis Ngannou has reached mythic proportions as UFC 220 draws closer and closer. In his short but meteoric rise, Ngannou has become almost a folk hero. His documentary is a crazy eye-opening rags to riches story and we all know by now that he has record-breaking punching power. However, his head coach Fernand Lopez says there are still a lot more that no one has seen yet, from his ground game to even more lethal striking techniques. Quite frankly, he’s afraid of what Ngannou can do to opponents.

“I think there are a lot of fighters in the UFC who we’ve never seen the best of because they’ve never had the opportunity to showcase the skills they have. If you’re going to a decision every time you fight, you may have time to show everything, but this guy [Francis Ngannou], he’s spent like one hour in [the cage] his whole career. People really don’t know what this guy can do. Submissions, heel hooks, if you see this guy does a heel hook or guillotine someone, it’s crazy. He’s got a very quick, very nasty guillotine, very nasty heel hook. There are so many skills he can do.”

It takes a brave man to hold pads for top UFC heavyweight contender @francis_ngannou 😵. Watch N’Gannou’s full #UFC218 Open Workout video: https://t.co/8SLUFNXY3x pic.twitter.com/ahgQoHl2gy

— MMAFighting.com (@MMAFighting) November 30, 2017

“People are far, far away from seeing Francis [Ngannou]’s best. here’s so much more that this guy is doing and I’m just like, Jesus, if people could see this. […] Spinning elbow coming from nowhere and spinning back kick, he can kill you with everything, his shoulder, everything he does is powerful. It’s crazy. […] I was talking about the elbow. When holding the pads, I’ve never felt so much elbow in my life. If Francis lands an elbow, I’m really afraid we have a problem, we may have a murder, like someone killing someone. It’s very heavy, very powerful. So yeah, I don’t hope the fight goes the distance just so he can show all his skills. I want the fight to end early, but if the fight does go a long time, we may see a lot of new things. Even if Francis doesn’t showcase all his skill in this fight, Francis isn’t going anywhere. He can be in the UFC for 20 years.” — Fernand Lopez, Francis Ngannou’s head coach, via MMA NYTT.

If one person knows firsthand just how terrifying Francis Ngannou is, it’s the man who has been with his MMA journey since the beginning. He’s also been knocked around a couple of thousands times himself, sometimes in the public UFC work outs like from UFC 219. Will we get to see Ngannou pull out all the stops against Stipe Miocic in their UFC heavyweight title fight? Everyone says the kicker will be Miocic’s wrestling, if that’s the case then it seems like Ngannou is prepared.

1/9/2018.