French heavyweight Gane will return after a year’s absence to fight Volkov in a rematch of their 2021 fight, which ‘Bon Gamin’ won.
French fans hoping to see Ciryl Gane atop another UFC Paris card will be disappointed to learn that “Bon Gamin” may be fighting in Abu Dhabi instead.
The very reliable Ag Fight reports that Gane is set to rematch Alexander Volkov on October 26th, which is the UFC’s big pay-per-view card in the United Arab Emirates. This comes days after the news that UFC Paris on September 28th will be headlined by a lightweight bout between Benoit Saint Denis and Renato Moicano.
Gane hasn’t fought since defeating Serghei Spivac in the main event of last year’s UFC Paris event in September. Reports had the French heavyweight turning down Tom Aspinall at UFC 304 in order to appear in an upcoming Netflix TV show called The Cage alongside Georges St-Pierre and Jon Jones, which is described as ‘Entourage but for MMA.’
Refusing a shot at the interim title to appear on a TV show isn’t the kind of thing UFC brass would appreciate, especially after Gane was given a soft rebound in the main event of last year’s Paris event after a crushing first round loss to Jones earlier in the year. We wouldn’t be surprised if they pulled a Garfield and mailed his fight to Abu Dhabi partially out of spite, because MMA is indeed like ‘Entourage’ in many ways.
Let’s note that the fight hasn’t officially been announced by the UFC yet, though, so change is possible.
Gane and Volkov last fought at the top of a UFC Apex Fight Night event in 2021 which saw Ciryl nearly blank Alexander on the scorecards 50-45, 50-45, and 49-46. Volkov was game but just couldn’t keep up with Gane’s volume on jabs and kicks.
Since then Volkov has gone 5-1 with his sole defeat coming against Tom Aspinall. Gane has gone 3-2 with both losses coming in heavyweight title fights: first to Francis Ngannou, and then to Jon Jones. All three of his wins have come via knockout.