Jon Jones snuffed out Ciryl Gane’s title aspirations in just over two minutes. Now on the verge of contendership once more, ‘Bon Gamin’ considers the loss a positive thing.
It’s been a year and a half since Jon Jones humbled Ciryl Gane in their fight for the vacant UFC heavyweight title, but it’s clear the loss is still on the mind of “Bon Gamin.”
Gane returns at UFC 310 on December 7th against Alexander Volkov in a fight that could propel him back into title contendership. During an interview on the UFC Countdown show for the upcoming pay-per-view, Ciryl shared his thoughts on the Jones loss.
“When I look back at it, it was obvious that I was not there,” Gane said. “I don’t recognize myself in there. It’s something I’ve never done in my life. I’ve never fought that way before. My distance management, my movement, the alertness that I love to show. I had none of that.”
— COMBAT (@C0MB4TT) December 1, 2024
The stunning quick loss took a lot of shine off Gane in the eyes of UFC fans, but that’s something he intends to gain back.
“I think that this experience has been beneficial,” he said. “For me personally, it helped me to refocus on myself. It gave me a spirit of revenge, a competitive spirit.”
“There were headlines like ‘Will Ciryl get humbled in Paris?’” he said of his comeback fight against Sergei Spivak. “I trained like never before, I was as vindictive as ever … We did the job.”
Gane TKO’d Spivac in the second round, but hasn’t competed since. A proposed interim heavyweight title match against Tom Aspinall in July never came together because the French fighter was busy acting in the Netflix series The Cage and an upcoming movie, Den of Thieves 2. Now he’s ready and refocused on climbing back to the very top of the heavyweight division.
Bookies expect him to get past the rematch with Volkov at UFC 310, but his odds get worse once he’s lined up against more well-rounded opponents like Tom Aspinall and Jon Jones. He’ll have to show some new wrinkles in his game on December 7th, which is very possible considering he only started competing professionally in MMA back in 2018.