Speaking to Slingo, Francis Ngannou’s trainer Dewey Cooper backs Ngannou to build bridges with the UFC to set up Jon Jones showdown, and expects Deontay Wilder to call Ngannou’s name in victory on June 28 to in a bid to lure him back into the boxing ring.
Deontay Wilder will call Ngannou’s name on June 28 to setup ‘spectacular’ showdown
We know the numbers. It's a whole different ball game [in boxing compared to MMA]. So yeah, there's definitely opportunities there. And he's blessed to have him.
Francis was meant to be a boxer this whole time, so it's great to see someone finally get a chance toto really go with their true passion. And that's boxing.
Deontay Wilder is the fight we always wanted, so I think it's a spectacular, intriguing matchup. We know about his power that goes without saying, we know about Francis’s power.
We definitely know about Deontay Wilder's power. That's a spectacular matchup. And I think it's the fight that we can definitely win.
Don't be surprised if, after Deontay fights, he's yelling Francis’s name because he wants that fight as well.
Ngannou will not return to the UFC - the PFL has his back when he ‘fumbled the bag’
I don't see any chance of Francis returning to the UFC. The other coaches on our staff may think differently. I can see him doing a kind of a co-promotion thing, maybe a UFC fight, but in conjunction with the PFL.
Because when all this went down and we ‘fumbled the bag’, the PFL had Francis's back, and one thing about Francis, he appreciates the support he got from PFL
He's not just gonna forget about that when the whole world said he screwed up and he blew it, or that he was afraid to fight someone - which was never the truth.
The PFL came to him and had his back, so as of now he's still with the PFL, so in order to do anything, the PFL would definitely have to be involved.
Ngannou ‘absolutely’ interested in negotiating partnership with UFC to face Jon Jones
Francis Ngannou versus Jon Jones, that's the MMA fight that the world wants to see. That's the Mayweather versus Pacquiao fight that the world wants to see in mixed martial arts.
I truly feel if you asked me if he's willing to go to the table with a co-promotion, absolutely he would, because he wants that fight with Jon Jones as bad as anyone wants it.
I'm sure he's willing to negotiate some kind of partnership to do it. And if the business truly made sense, I think even if Dana would too - if it really made good business.
I don’t think Dana would be pig-headed to say no, but it has to be done a certain way, or there's no way it could happen.
Fighting the winner of Ngannou v Jones would be ‘best case scenario’ for Tom Aspinall
Francis v Jon is absolutely bigger than Jon v Tom. And Tom wants that to happen. Why? Because he would get the winner anyway, even bigger stakes for him.
Tom, being a position he'sin the age he'sat, he can wait a little bit. Let those two legends fight each other, and then he fights the ultimate legend, that would be the best case scenario for his brand.
‘Puppet master’ Jones is copying from the Floyd Mayweather playbook - he will fight Aspinall
I definitely think Jon fights again after the way he looked against Stipe, peopledon't realize this is a new weight class for him, so he hasn't experienced all those exhilarating moments as he did at light heavyweight.
He only has two fights in the heavyweight division, so there's some intriguing matchups for him, and that gives him his purpose, so absolutely he's going to fight again.
He's just doing the Floyd Mayweather method playing horrible to make optimal money. He wants to control the narrative and be the puppet master on all the moves.
He will end up fighting Aspinall unless this Ngannou fight is just too impossible to make.
Daniel Cormier does not understand boxing - his criticisms of Ngannou are ‘miscalculated’
Daniel Cormier must understand this is boxing, this is not mixed martial arts. DC is an Olympian at wrestling. In wrestling if you get put in a bad situation you can clinch and hold and figure it out.
In Good old fashioned boxing, once you get hurt it'svery hard to recover, especially when you take a heavyweight power.
Watch any interview that I did before the fight, I knew that Anthony Joshua would be a more dangerous fight than Tyson Fury because of that right hand and the power.
When you get hit by guys as big as Joshua or Francis, there is no coming back from that. That's one thing DC doesn't understand. He's never been hit by Joshua with a full extended power to the chin.
We wish Francis could have recovered. We wish he could have held and gotten through a few rounds, and that's exactly what I told him in the corner, ‘just hold on’.
But that's not in Francis's nature to run and hide and hold and not fight back. DC doesn't understand boxing punching power. It's different from MMA punching power. It's different from the shit Jon Jones hit him with
DC is miscalculated for his criticism because Francis isn't the only heavyweight that was stopped early in a fight.
I can see the pain in Francis Ngannou’s eyes after incident
We're training today, and we've been training for the last few weeks. Francis is an even keel type of guy. Even when he's feeling bad. He kind of keeps a low, calm demeanor. But you could see the pain in his eyes.
But he's still working out and being stoic. He doesn't get too emotional or too boisterous as far as saying too much. He's a real calm spirit and my heart feels for him.
He's just trying to be as normal as possible, but we've been having some tremendous training sessions. I think that's a place he could really release all of that tension and all of the negative things that have happened - I've been getting punished every day.
The Basharat brother had their ‘village destroyed’ - now they’re going to be successful in UFC
When they were young their whole village got destroyed, and their dad was a military man, and they had to move to a different location.
They got out of Afghanistan and got to London, and it was hard for him. They told me stories when they were kids, people trying to bully them, and of course they're from Afghanistan - they're not getting bullied.
So they had a lot of street fights in London but they got that Afghanistan blood. Those guys are warriors. They love to fight, they love to train in martial arts, they were self-taught for a long time.
They basically made it to the UFC training with one another. They go to gyms and box guys and spar guys. But they really didn't have a coach. So these guys are really special in their regard.
I look forward to both of them being very, very successful.
