Ciryl Gane Was Just Given A Lesson In Fight Promotion
The UFC roster only has a handful of fighters capable of creating interest in a fight. It is even rarer to see a fighter who is good enough at fight promotion to get the fight they are asking for. I’d love to present you an example of a fighter hitting a home run in a fight promotion. Instead, we doing the opposite. Ciryl Gane just received a massive lesson in fight promotion. Let’s learn from his mistake.
Gane’s mistakes played a massive role in the UFC heavyweight title picture. Jon Jones pulled out of his UFC 295 bout against Stipe Miocic. As a result, the UFC opted to create an interim title fight between Tom Aspinall and Sergei Pavlovich. Why not Gane? Well, Gane fumbled through every step of fight promotion.
This story does have a few steps. Let’s rewind all the way to UFC London. The main event saw Aspinall knockout Marcin Tybura in the first round. In his octagon interview, he laid out his future plans.
“I’m going to go to Paris,” Aspinall said. “I’m going to be sat front row for Ciryl Gane versus Sergehi Spivac. I’m going to beat the winner and then I’m going to beat Jon Jones.”
Aspinall did exactly what he said he was going to. At UFC Paris, he sat front row waiting to see who was victorious. That was Gane. The former interim champion impressively dismantled and finished Spivac in the second round.
The stage was set, Aspinall and Gane were both coming off impressive performances and it made all the sense in the world to match the two together, but that is not how it went down. Instead, Gane dismissed fighting Aspinall in his octagon interview.
“In the crowd here tonight, somewhere, we have Tom Aspinall,” Michael Bisping, a UFC commentator, said. “He said he wants the winner of this fight. Is that a fight that you would like?
“You know what, my mission, whoever it is, is to go forward,” Gane said through a French translator. “I failed in getting in getting the belt. My mission is to get the belt and that’s that’s what I’m going to do going forward.”
In an interview with “The MMA Hour,” Gane responded to Aspinall’s callout and explained that he was uninterested in fighting someone ranked behind him. In his explanation, Gane stated he wanted big title fights against two GOATs (Jones and Miocic) while also acknowledging they may retire.
A quick side note: Why would you openly angle to fight two fighters who may retire? That makes no sense.
Now, we have all the cards on the table, and let’s discuss where Gane went wrong.
The most crucial mistake that Gane made was knowing his ranking, but not knowing how many fights he was from a title fight. This is not unique to Gane. It is remarkable how many fighters fail to understand how far they are from the title.
Gane has already had two shots at the undisputed title. In the first, he lost a decision to Francis Ngannou. In the most recent, Jones submitted him in the second round. Still, he thought a singular win over Spivac would earn him another title fight. That is highly unrealistic and would be unprecedented. Typically, fighters who are 0-2 in undisputed title fights do not quickly work back into title contention. The road back gets even longer if you get finished in the first round.
The part that is the craziest is that Aspinall tossed Gane a lifeline and he did not use it. If Gane agrees to fight Aspinall and faces off with him at UFC Paris, the hype surrounding that bout would be through the roof.
If fans were craving an Aspinall and Gane bout, there is a chance that the would be considered for the interim title fight. However, that chance was not even on the table since Gane publically shunned a fight against Aspinall. Now, Aspinall is in a better situation and is fighting for a belt.
The best part of this situation is that we have the benefit of hindsight. At this point, we can see Pavlovich and Aspinall were both closer to a title fight than Gane. Still, Gane had no idea and was unwilling to fight them both.
Gane clearly did not realize it was beneficial to fight back in the rankings. It is possible for a fighter to fight backward in the ranks and still progress, ask Beniel Dariush. In 2022, Dariush was on a six-fight win streak and agreed to fight back in the rankings to take on rising prospect Mateusz Gamrot.
Dariush cleanly beat Gamrot and was given a No. 1 contender fight against Charles Oliveira. At the same time, he stopped a fighter from rising the ranks and stealing a future title shot. Gane did not take the same approach and now he sits on the outside of the title picture looking inward at fighters he declined to fight.
It is astounding how badly Ciryl Gane played his hand over the last six months. That has resulted in him being in a far worse situation and further back from a title. Thankfully for him, he is a supremely talented fighter and will have the opportunity to overcome this mistake. Hopefully, this serves as a wake-up call that makes Gane reevaluate how he approaches fight promotion.
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