After once being one of the most highly-regarded prospects in the heavyweight division, Ciryl Gane ran into more than his fair share of doubters following a quick submission loss to Jon Jones at UFC 285 in March. Gane took a step toward restoring his image at UFC Fight Night 226, as he was dominant in a second-round technical knockout victory against Sergey Spivak in Saturday’s headliner at Accor Arena in Paris. “Bon Gamin” admitted that he felt pressure heading into the fight.
Pressure and Improvement
“I’m not going to lie. I’ve got the pressure, and I want to do well,” Gane said at the post-fight press conference. “This is not a game of basketball or soccer. That’s different. Just that, you have some emotion that’s really different. Yeah, a little bit afraid, a little bit pressured. You want to do well.” With that being said, Gane claims that he wasn’t focused on proving the doubters wrong with his performance against Spivak. It was more about correcting mistakes made in the Jones fight and improving as a mixed martial artist. “It was not really important,” Gane said. “That’s not a good word. But just to fix it, you know what I mean? Just to fix the situation. It was a mistake, it was not me. I know. My coach and all of my corner know that, I was not here in my last fight. And today I was really here, really aware, and I proved it and we did it.”
Potential Showdown with Tom Aspinall
Tom Aspinall was in attendance in Paris on Saturday, and Gane’s victory potentially sets up a showdown with the British heavyweight contender. Gane wasn’t ready to commit to a fight against Aspinall, however. “I know he called out my name, but that’s perfectly normal in this position. He wants to go up [in the rankings]. But me too,” Gane said. “You know what I mean? So I did a mistake, it was my first real mistake unfortunately and the people were a little bit hard with me, it was a little bit painful. But tonight I proved, with all of the pressure I can have, I did very great and I proved it.”
Gane’s primary goal is to get another shot at the heavyweight belt. Jones and Stipe Moicic are set to square off for the title in the UFC 295 main event, but the future of the division is murky beyond that date. “This is a new era for the heavyweight division and you have some big movement,” Gane said. “We’re waiting for the big title fight with two GOATs, maybe they’re going to retire. So for me, the good way is to go back. It was my mission tonight to shine, to prove I’m still here and I want to go back to the belt. So we will see, we will see for the moment.”