In 2013,
Fernand Lopez and his business partner, a police officer, opened CrossFight in the
12th arrondissement of Paris. Soon after, he renamed the gym 'MMA Factory.' The gym started with only two fighters but rapidly expanded to have over 600 students and 18 staff members as of 2018. MMA Factory was sponsored by
Reebok France.
Francis Carmont met Ngannou and then introduced him to Lopez and the MMA factory. Lopez saw the potential of Ngannou and convinced him to try MMA even though Ngannou originally wanted to do boxing. However the relationship between Lopez and Ngannou has deteriorated in recent years with Lopez citing that Ngannou has ego problems and had refused to pay gym membership fees after he had achieved success. As a result, Ngannou moved to the
United States to train at
Xtreme Couture. MMA factory has also produced
Ciryl Gane. Gane won the
Interim UFC Heavyweight Championship after defeating
Derrick Lewis on 7 August 2021, at
UFC 265. Gane faced
Francis Ngannou for the
UFC Heavyweight Championship on 22 January 2022, at
UFC 270. He lost the fight via unanimous decision. == Notable people ==