Francis Ngannou is not just doubling down on his skepticism of UFC Minneapolis opponent Junior dos Santos’s black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, he is taking it two steps further. First, Ngannou contends that if he is to believe dos Santos is a true black belt, he requires proof:
“I would like to have some evidence,” Ngannou said in an interview with Eyes on the Game. “I would like somebody to show me Junior dos Santos do some jiu-jitsu move in the fight or in the training once. I never seen nothing.”
And the next step might be considered more like a giant leap by most, as Francis Ngannou went on to state that even he himself has a better ground game than dos Santos.
“Yes, I think so,” Ngannou said when asked if his jiu-jitsu is better than dos Santos. “And I have seen him in some situations that if, even me, which is, like…I don’t know, I’ll consider myself like a white belt, but I have seen him for some situations that I would do better than that. So I don’t believe that.”
All this talk about Junior dos Santos’s jiu-jitsu may be all for naught, as both Ngannou, dos Santos and perhaps most of the public believes it will be a standup fight, one in which dos Santos envisions a knockout, another claim from dos Santos that Ngannou dismissed:
“We hope a lot of things,” Ngannou said. “But there is a real difference between our hope, our wishes, and the reality. And the reality, he knows is the reality. The reality is I’m going there with some bombs that I’m gonna throw, and he doesn’t have the toys to catch my bomb. “
“I don’t worry about which round it’s in. What round the opportunity comes, I will take it.”
What’s your take on Francis Ngannou claiming to have a better ground game than Junior dos Santos?
