Trots att de flesta nog är nöjda med UFC 226 som underhållning fanns det en svart plump på kortet. Matchen mellan Francis Ngannou och Derrick Lewis var nog i de flestas ögon en riktig ”stinker”. De båda tungviktarna cirkulerade mest runt varandra utan att få något gjort och till och med Joe Rogan började kritisera nöjesvärdet av matchen under sändningen.
I presskonferensen efteråt hade Dana White egentligen bara ett ord att säga om matchen.
”Horrible”
Han fortsatte sedan att skylla den horribla matchbilden på Ngannou och försvarade i samma mening Lewis.
”I think that [Ngannou] had a pretty quick rise here and obviously the fight over Alistair Overeem catapulted him, everybody was talking about him,”
“I thought he was going to be the next [big] guy. I think his ego ran away with him, big time. I can tell you that his ego absolutely did run away with him. The minute that that happens to you in the fight game, you see what happens. You start to fall apart.”
”I had some personal encounters with him, as did other people in the organization, and this guy’s ego was just so out of control,”
“It’s like, before the Stipe fight, he took off and went to France. Didn’t even really train for that fight. And you see the results. Well, he came back and did train [this time], but ego is what hurt Francis Ngannou.”
