Watch: Francis Ngannou, Kevin Lee, and Hollywood star Michael Jai White train together at the UFC Performance Institute
Francis Ngannou and Kevin Lee have established themselves as mainstays in the UFC over the past few years. Both Ngannou and Lee often train at the UFC PI (Performance Institute) in Las Vegas, Nevada. The PI provides its athletes with world-class facilities to hone their MMA skills and overall fitness.
As we’d previously reported, action movie legend and longtime martial arts practitioner Michael Jai White recently trained with UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou at the UFC PI. Photos and videos of MJW training with ‘The Predator’ set the combat sports community abuzz a few days back.
Francis Ngannou has now put forth a video on his official YouTube channel that features their training session. Former UFC lightweight and current UFC welterweight star Kevin Lee also participated in the session.
Fans can watch the video embedded below:
Michael Jai White showcases multiple martial arts techniques in the video, primarily striking-centric martial arts. The Hollywood actor notably emphasizes the significance of striking through one’s target rather than simply grazing it.
MJW uses precise Muay Thai knees on the heavy bag to demonstrate this teaching. He shows a few spinning kicks to Francis Ngannou and the others present at the gym. Moreover, the 56-year-old also points out the importance of not telegraphing one’s strikes.
To demonstrate this, the veteran throws a fast punch against Kevin Lee’s hand and notes how the punch misses despite its speed. MJW indicates that the punch missed because he telegraphed it by moving in a certain way before throwing the strike.
MJW subsequently throws relatively slower punches, with no telegraph. He illustrates that these punches landed on Lee’s hand even though they were slower, because he didn’t telegraph them.
Francis Ngannou and Kevin Lee have tough challenges ahead of them
Reigning UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou is set to face newly crowned interim UFC heavyweight champion Ciryl Gane in a title unification matchup next. A specific date for this highly anticipated fight hasn’t been announced as of yet.
Meanwhile, Kevin Lee is set to return from a lengthy injury layoff and will be moving up to the welterweight division again instead of staying at lightweight. Lee is expected to fight Daniel Rodriguez in a welterweight bout at UFC on ESPN: Barboza vs. Chikadze on August 28th, 2021.