Smoke, neon lights, a cage where women and men clash, determined to fight back.
It is in this unreal setting, that of the fourth edition of the Ares MMA league championship, that Fernand Lopez, a key figure in French MMA, welcomes us.
Sports trainer, founder of the famous gym MMA Factory, president of the ARES league, he is today co-author of the book “Training Camp”.
This book is a countdown to the match that opposed, on January 22, 2022, his student Ciryl Gane to his former student Francis Ngannou.
Both from the same room, trained by the same coach, both sports geniuses and among the top 15 best fighters in the world.
Francis Ngannou is UFC world heavyweight champion, Ciryl Gane is interim champion and faces him for the title.
To read also Taken on the ground, fight of attrition: how Ngannou dominated Gane to keep his world belt in MMA
“I wanted to tell the mysteries of high-level sport, explains Fernand Lopez.
Tell all the stages of a "training camp", that is the space-time where one prepares for a fight.
Among all the technical details and anecdotes, we also come back to the genesis of this fight.
The conflicting but strong relationship that unites Ngannou to Fernand Lopez.
The almost fusional attachment between Ciryl Gane and her coach.
His past, which reveals his origins and the street fights in Cameroon which constituted his first approach to combat sports.
“With humility, I would say that I contributed to importing MMA in France, he confides.
As UFC President Dana White said, it is no coincidence that Ciryl Gane leaves the same room as Francis Ngannou.
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