Ciryl Gane knows what the critics have said about him.
In 15 pro bouts, Gane has only lost twice: First, to Francis Ngannou in a fight that saw Gane controlled on the ground en route to a five-round decision loss; then, to Jon Jones, who took Gane down with ease before submitting him in just over two minutes.
Gane has fought twice since the Jones defeat and while he’s shown flashes of improvement with his grappling, several questions remain as he prepares to challenge Tom Aspinall for the heavyweight
title at UFC 321 on Oct. 25 in Abu Dhabi. He’s confident that if the fight goes to the ground, he’s more than a match for Aspinall.
“Sometimes life is a little bit strange because some bad results and then people think that you’ve never worked on your ground game, on your grappling,” Gane said via a French translator at a press conference in Paris. “But believe me, as someone who’s come from Thai boxing as well, I’ve got a team behind me. My coach Fernand Lopez, we’ve worked on our ground game.
“These are experts. We know exactly what we’re doing. Sometimes I’ve not been able to show it and that’s on me, but this time, believe me, I’ve been working, and hopefully I can show it this time around.”
Aspinall enters their title fight as the defending champion and while he’s known for his fast knockouts, he also has a handful of memorable submissions to his name. The British standout is just one of three fighters ever to submit 60-fight veteran Andrei Arlovski, and when Aspinall met Alexander Volkov in a March 2022 headlining bout he submitted Volkov with an armbar inside of a round.
Gane wants it to be known that he’s more prepared than ever to guarantee he’s ready for whatever Aspinall brings to the table.
“As you know, my last fight was back in December, then during the months of January and February, I was resting a little bit,” Gane said. “I had a little bit of time away through an injury, recovering from that. But since March I’ve really been training, giving it my all. I’ve not been training PlayStation or going to the Champions League or watching other events like some of the others. I’ve been really training, so I’m concentrated, I think everyone’s been able to see that.”
The athletic Gane is coming off of back-to-back wins over Serghei Spivac and Volkov, the latter a controversial split call in Gane’s favor. Time will tell what version of Gane shows up for fight night, though the Frenchman expects to face the best version of Aspinall this October.
“I think Tom has the answer already,” Gane said. “He knows I’m a little bit of a different fighter in the division, but I fight in a different way, but I’m sure that Tom will be able to come up with an answer if he’s thrown to it. We’ll just have to see when the fight happens.”
