I wasn't really looking forward to this one but I am sure the people of France were. I was unaware of this until a few years ago but MMA events and even to some degree, MMA gyms, were banned in France until recently. The people there were still fans and they have had a few mid-level guys over the years even though they were forced to train somewhere outside of France for the most part.
I have always found Ciryl Gane to be an exceptionally boring fighter. There is no denying that his style of fighting works from a purist standpoint but his matches have always been really boring. He has this strategy of mostly back-pedaling and keeping his opponent at distance by using his legs to attack his opponents' forward approach. In order to get a shot in on Gane one has to be willing to eat a kick to the midsection or leading leg and even then Ciryl is already back-pedaling out of range to avoid being struck. This works for the guy on his mostly decision on points victories, but he is very far from a crowd pleaser to most people.
Yesterday's main event was a little bit different though and even though Gane was still extremely boring in the first round, things picked up in the 2nd and 3rd and it was a pretty great fight.
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This "lean-forward" approach of Gane's normally results in quite weak punches. He is really good at staying out of the clinch and almost never allows himself to get backed up all the way to the fence thus forcing him to do some close-quarters combat. He is still pretty good at that and has a pretty solid chin but it seems as though his objective any time that there is a close quarters conflict that his primary objective is to put some distance between himself in and whoever he is fighting against.
In this regard, him facing against a crowd favorite in Tai Taivasa was kind of stacked against Tai from the start. Taivasa is more of a clinch fighter while Gane mostly approaches from distance, gets a few kicks or maybe a jab in, then runs away. I'm sure there is more to it than that but unless they are French, I don't know anyone that is really a fan of the guy nor do they look forward to his name on a card.
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The first round went exactly like I expected it to go with Gane getting points on kicks and weak strikes to 10-9 the round, and then Tai Tuivasa, seeing that the 2nd round was going to go the same way, started to press forward even though he certainly knew he was going to eat some shots in the process. Gane is an opportunist and from my standpoint anyway this is his strategy.... frustrate your opponent with your gangly high-reach arms and legs until they break from the plan and try to rush you. For the most part this strategy has worked for Gane right up until he was facing the world champion. Whenever you are in a belt fight I feel as though if you are going to win on points, you have to do it convincingly if you are the challenger and Gane's strategy of making his opponent come to him wasn't going to work against Francis Ngannou since he too is capable of doing this same strategy.
You may recall the fans booing both of them during this showdown back in January.
It looked like Gane was going to do much of the same but Tai Tuivasa started taking chances in round 2 including scoring a semi-deflected overhand right that resulted in Gane hitting the floor. Tai was unable to take advantage of this and the round ended with either guy looking like they could have been declared the winner. The judges saw it differently though because even though Tai had the "better looking" strikes in that round, Gane was getting more "significant strikes" in quantity.
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Tai Tuivasa isn't exactly the poster child for fitness and he was noticeably slowed down in round 3. This resulted in Gane actually moving forward a bit and doing what appeared to be "going in for the kill." In one particularly interesting portion of the match, Tai gave everyone, including Gane the impression that he had been rocked by a strike and lured Gane in only to have him make a magical full recovery and swing for the fences once Gane was within range. Ciryl is very lucky that he missed with that strike but it looked like that was all that Tuivasa had left in the tank and it was only a little while later that Gane KO'd him.
It was nice to see Gane put on a bit of a show and there may have been a number of factors that lead to this at least somewhat of a change in game plan. He was attacked on all sides for having a boring championship fight and there is video of people leaving the arena early while his fight was still going on because nobody really even wanted to watch the 2 giants dance for 2 more rounds. Another factor might have been how momentous of an occasion this was it being the first UFC event in France ever, as well.
No matter what the reasons were, Ciryl Gane was able to impress me a bit in this matchup and I hope he will adjust his play style to be a bit more entertaining in the future.