NEW YORK, NY - APRIL 27: UFC president Dana White appears during a media availability for UFC 200 at Madison Square Garden on April 27, 2016 in New York City. (Photo by Jeff UFC president Dana White (Image: Getty)
Saturday’s UFC 226 bout between Derrick Lewis and Francis Ngannou in Las Vegas received strong criticism for the way it played out, and UFC president Dana White took particular aim at the latter fighter’s performance.
“Horrible,” White called Ngannou’s performance during the post-event news conference, before adding that the fighter’s arrogance hurt him in Saturday’s fight. “I think that he 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 guy. I think his ego ran away with him. Big time. I can tell you that his ego absolutely did run away. The minute that happens to you in the fight game you see what happens — you start to fall apart.”
Ngannou and Lewis logged a combined 31 landed strikes in their 15-minute matchup on Saturday. Lewis ultimately won the contest by unanimous decision.
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Ngannou started his career with a record of 11-1. After knocking out Overeem last December at UFC 218, he faced off against Stipe Miocic, who at the time was the UFC heavyweight champion. Miocic easily defeated Ngannou via unanimous decision in January to keep his belt.
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On Saturday, UFC light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier beat Miocic and called out former UFC champion Brock Lesnar — now a WWE fighter — Lesnar then entered the Octagon and started verbally attacking Miocic and Ngannou after pushing Cormier.
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