Let’s set aside all the repugnant circumstances around the UFC 265 main event from Saturday night: the attempted strong-arming of the heavyweight champion, the blatant and disgraceful running-down of one of the sport’s biggest and most beloved stars, the complete devaluation of the UFC’s championships. Hard as it may be, let’s ignore all that. That being said, Ciryl Gane: pretty damn good, huh?
While Francis Ngannou summited the mountain to become world heavyweight champion in March, it’s Gane who has been the division’s breakout star of 2021. On Saturday, that breakout culminated in a trinket around the Frenchman’s waist, as Gane comprehensively dominated Derrick Lewis in front of Lewis’ hometown fans to win an apocryphal interim title.
Not a single person watching believes (or should believe) that Ciryl Gane is anything approaching a real heavyweight champion. But Saturday’s performance cemented him as one of the two or three best heavyweights in the world, as he took a perennially top-ranked contender and made him look like he didn’t belong, before finishing him via strikes in the third round.
Ciryl Gane’s still very-young MMA career – he has just 10 pro fights, starting just over three years ago – has been a series of dominant performances against increasingly well-regarded competition. Saturday’s outing was his best. Gane was flawless, avoiding Lewis’ titanic power and turning the veteran into a bystander, outstriking him 112-16 and connecting on a truly absurd EIGHTY percent of his significant strikes.
Gane’s previous encounter against Jairzinho Rozenstruik – a similarly powerful beeflord who has a tendency to stand there and hunt the big shot – gave us an outline for what this fight might look like. In that fight, Gane circled around him endlessly, jabbing and low-kicking him to death, scoring points while never allowing Rozenstruik to do much of anything. Rozenstruik never turned it up and forced the issue, allowing Gane to effortlessly skate by. Gane outstruck him over 2-to-1, and claimed a lopsided unanimous decision.
Gane mostly followed the same formula through the first two rounds, but in the third, we saw what happens when Gane actually smells a finishing opportunity. Against Lewis, the unceasing, completely undefended low kicks – Gane hit on all 32 he attempted – started to add up in a way they didn’t against Rozenstruik, a more seasoned and cultured pure kickboxer. By midway through the third, Lewis was even more immobile than he usually is, and Gane moved in for the kill. It’s not all the time that you see Gane with his blood up, hunting a finish, but you saw it here. He doesn’t have the raw punching power of a lot of heavyweights, but his amazing mobility and gas tank are such that he can get on you heavy in a hurry.
For his part, Lewis did every both of the things that he does. He stood there waiting to throw the big right hand AND threw the jumping switch kick that never lands. But whether he was befuddled by Gane’s constant stance switching, or just so much slower than Gane that he looked like a 60-year-old man, he was unable to get anything going almost to a comical degree. He landed three significant strikes in the first round and five in the second. He attempted just 37 total strikes in almost 15 minutes of action.
Lewis stood there and did nothing, and did nothing some more, looking for a moment. Against Curtis Blaydes in February, Lewis could pull it off because he knew no matter how much of a lead Blaydes could rack up on the feet, at some point he was going to level change, and that uppercut would be there. Against Gane, that moment never came.
Although Lewis kind of personifies all of the bad things about heavyweight MMA, he’s still been remarkably successful in his UFC career. The stat that circulated in the media heading into the weekend was the fact that Lewis was 6-0 against fighters currently ranked in the heavyweight top 15 – that comes with a huge asterisk, as it ignores the fact that Lewis had five previous UFC losses to fighters who have since retired, been released, or otherwise left the organization. Even so, it cannot be denied that Lewis has beaten a lot of the world’s best heavyweights, despite having little more than a powerful right hand.
That list includes top contenders like Blaydes, Alexander Volkov, and the world champion Ngannou himself. (Take my word for it on the last one – I can’t advise anyone in good conscience to watch the Lewis-Ngannou fight.) Gane made him look like some regional-level jamoke who didn’t belong in the same cage as him. That, right there, is something.
Since he entered the UFC two years ago, we’ve known that Gane is something special. He’s the heavyweight who moves like a lightweight, a latecomer to the sport whose talent was immediately evident and undeniable. And although I hate the path we’ve taken to get there, we’re now primed for one of the best heavyweight showdowns we’ve had in years. Ngannou vs. Gane, monstrous power against unrivaled speed and finesse. Two former sparring partners in France who know each other well. Two superstars in their prime. We haven’t had a heavyweight matchup like this since Cain Velasquez–Junior dos Santos.
Ciryl Gane may not have earned a belt around his waist just yet. But he’s earned the title of the true elite.
The Big Fight 