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Francis Ngannou remains the talk of the town in the heavyweight sphere of combat sports. Whether it's Jon Jones taking aim at 'The Predator' for supposedly fleeing from the UFC or heavyweight boxing great Tyson Fury allegedly working on an exhbition boxing match between the two, he is a prominent fixture.
Yet another famous heavyweight, however, has come out to offer his thoughts on the Cameroonian knockout artist. Former UFC heavyweight champion Tim Sylvia had a recent interview on Submission Radio, where he sent shockwaves by claiming that he'd have gotten the better of Ngannou in his prime.
He criticized the Cameroonian's perceived lack of technical striking skills and pointed to Francis Ngannou's wrestling-heavy performance against Ciryl Gane to highlight his apparent inability to strike with technical fighters.
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When it came to himself, Tim Sylvia did not mince his words:
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"I'd destroy him in my prime. If we fought right now, he beats me, but in my prime, if we could go back in time and I'm in my prime, he's in his prime, I destroy him. He's too wild. I was more of a technical striker than he is."
Catch the full interview below:
Fans on Twitter, however, were not impressed by Sylvia's claims of technical superiority.
After Bloody Elbow posted a tweet quoting the former UFC champion's words, fans formed a thread under the tweet and mocked Sylvia.
One fan said, "Yeah but prime Sylvia competed when MMA was in the stone ages. These fighters today are machines compared to the 1st gen fighters," while another parroted the sentiments, writing, "The fight game has evolved so much since then. Ego talk."
One fan even went as far as writing, "tim syliva would lose to most of the top light heavyweights lol."
A collage of some of the fan reactions in question can be seen below:
What have other UFC veterans said about Francis Ngannou?
Tim Sylvia isn't the only veteran heavyweight, who has spoken about fighting former heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou. However, instead of talking about a hypothetical matchup in his prime, this Hall of Famer expressed an interest in facing Ngannou now.
Two years ago, Don Frye appeared on episode 112 of the popular The Joe Rogan Experience podcast, where he spoke about his desire to fight 'The Predator' and that he wanted to make a comeback to professional fighting. The revelation stunned Rogan as Frye was in his mid-50s by then.
