You can follow the preliminary fights for UFC 270, including that of Charles Jourdain, starting at 8 p.m. on Saturday, February 22, on RDS INFO and Sportish.
PARIS, France – The reference club in the discipline in France, the MMA Factory will experience a consecration on Sunday in Anaheim with the duel for the UFC heavyweight title between Frenchman Cyril Gane and Cameroonian Francis Ngannou, two fighters trained in the Parisian gym.
Barely two years after its legalization in the country in January 2020, mixed martial arts (AMM) “made in France” find themselves at the top of the bill within the UFC and it owes it in large part to a establishment located in the 12th arrondissement of the capital.
It is between the walls of an old garage on the outskirts of the Bois de Vincennes, transformed in 2012 into a temple of mixed martial arts, that Gane and Ngannou learned everything. The two men were even briefly training partners before the Cameroonian struck out on his own by joining the United States.
“We are very proud. In the only fight that matters this year, both opponents were sportingly born at the MMA Factory. It’s a great recognition. We managed to place the French flag on the AMM world map,” admits Fernand Lopez, emblematic coach and co-founder of the club.
The 43-year-old technician, from Insep and armed with state diplomas in all combat sports, is the soul of the MMA Factory. The native of Tala, Cameroon, himself a former combatant, launched his business at a time when the word AMM smelled of sulfur. He knew the secret beginnings of the room, first opened under the name of “crossfight” so as not to frighten the authorities, perfectly mastering the art of juggling between the “legal vagueness” to be able to exercise a sport without any basis legal in France.
“The practice of MMA was not prohibited, it was competition that was. So we could apply for subsidies from the State or from the sports department as a sports association practicing MMA. There was no problem,” recalls Fernand Lopez.
Today, the portraits of Gane and Ngannou are proudly displayed around the two cages of the establishment and Lopez has become a key figure in French AMMs, both club boss and trainer but also manager and promoter through of the Ares Fighting Championship, which he established in 2019.
Its structure, which has more than 2000 members from “4 to 77 years old”, now has an additional room of 1800 m² in Rungis, the largest in Europe, and several satellite clubs in the provinces. A stable in its own right, the MMA Factory can boast of having seven representatives in the UFC.
“Professionalism”
The recipe for success? “the American model”, according to Fernand Lopez.
“I wanted to have a room where sports performance is at the center of the project,” he explains. We teach MMA as well as all the other disciplines that make up combat sports. With an elite coach for each sport. »
To shape the fighters, nothing is left to chance. Cognitive development sessions, nutritional follow-up, English lessons, media relations courses are notably offered to candidates for the American dream of MAs.
“At the MMA Factory, there is everything you need to welcome future champions, says heavyweight Alan Baudot, two UFC fights on the clock. This is where there is the highest level in France and the most accomplished professionalism. »
“It is a model, abounds Bertrand Amoussou, one of the pioneers of the discipline in France and member of the Board of the International Federation of AMM (IMMAF). It’s a mini Insep of AMMs. They use the same tools to craft champions. »
A program from which Francis Ngannou was able to benefit, spotted by Fernand Lopez “penniless, in front of a soup kitchen” near the MMA Factory before reigning over the queen category of heavyweights.
The two men are scrambled, but the current trainer of Ngannou recognizes the merits of Lopez in the formation of the “Predator”.
“Fernand should be celebrated for his work with Gane and Ngannou,” Eric Nicksick said this week.
