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PARIS — An Uber arrives for a pickup outside the MMA Factory gym in the Rungis neighborhood, near Orly Airport. It’s a brisk afternoon with a light rain, three days after Christmas. The city, a capital of arts from fashion to culinary, is relatively quiet.
When the driver hears that his passenger is visiting with UFC interim heavyweight champion Ciryl Gane, his voice rises with excitement. The driver, Merouane Brakhli, has been a Brazilian jiu-jitsu student at the MMA Factory for four years — before mixed martial arts fights were legal in France.
With one hand on the wheel, Brakhli opens the Google Translate app on his iPhone, hoping to make it easier to carry on a conversation in English. The Eiffel Tower is a blur in the distance out the driver’s side window of his Kia Niro, and Brakhli nearly misses a highway off-ramp. No matter. He’s immersed in the near-and-dear topic at hand: the recent surge of MMA in France.
Francis Ngannou is the UFC heavyweight champion. His MMA career was born at the MMA Factory as well as Gane’s.
On Saturday, Ngannou and Gane — former training partners under coach Fernand Lopez — will fight in the main event of UFC 270 in Anaheim, California (10 p.m. ET, ESPN+ PPV). ESPN’s two top-ranked heavyweight fighters were both brought up by Lopez, starting before they could compete in France, which legalized MMA…
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Source : espn
