Francis Ngannou’s knee “buckled funny” after takedown attempt in sparring

Ngannou suffered injuries to both of his knees in the lead up to his UFC 270 fight with Ciryl Gane, but fought through them to defend his heavyweight title

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A takedown attempt from one of Francis Ngannou’s sparring partners left the UFC champion with torn knee ligaments just weeks before UFC 270.

Ngannou wore knee sleeves for his injuries at UFC 270 last weekend and was forced to wrestle his way to victory against Ciryl Gane.

It marks the first time Ngannou has won by points in his MMA career, ditching his strategy of challenging Gane on the feet after losing the first two rounds of the bout.

The Cameroonian was told to pull out of the fight after a doctor warned him that competing could cause “irreversible” damage to his knees.

And coach Eric Nicksick explained how a botched takedown in sparring was to blame for Ngannou’s injuries.

“Ali [Abdelaziz] had a big heavyweight come in town, he was a guy that was going to be on the Contender [Series]. He was a great training partner and a great look for Francis,” Nicksick said on The MMA Hour.

“Francis was standing southpaw. Francis was kind of piecing him up a little bit, and I could tell the guy was getting anxious, so the guy shot a very, very low single.

“It wasn’t like him trying to be mean or anything like that, it was just him taking a shot. But it was really low, and went onto Francis’ lead leg, which was his right leg being southpaw.

“With the shin pads and the knee pad on, his knee kind of buckled funny. And he cringed and grabbed it, and then got up and kind of moved around a little bit and then actually finished up the rounds.”

Ngannou – who will need surgery on for his injured ACL – thinks Gane’s team were aware of his injuries heading into the fight.

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The injury happened three days after Christmas and despite Ngannou being able to finish the rounds after being taken down, the results of his MRI scan were damning.

“We went to the [UFC] PI and got looked at the next day. He had MRI and it was a full MCL tear, and then he had damage to the ACL as well,” Nicksick continued.

“So once we heard that, in my mind, I was like, ‘Well, I don’t know how you’re going to be able to move around.’

“We just took it one day at a time and he ended up getting treatment on the knee, but he never really lost sight of what he wanted to do and that was to fight.”

Ngannou is free to leave the UFC in December after fighting out of his contract and predicts he will meet WBC champion Tyson Fury in a crossover fight.