WHERE DOES CIRYL GANE GO FROM HERE?

By E. Spencer Kyte | Posted 1 year ago

Ciryl Gane is coming off a loss.

 

Losing in mixed martial arts doesn’t carry anywhere near the same detrimental impact as it does in boxing, where a single setback can dash championship dreams, Gane’s recent setback, however, isn’t an ordinary one.

 

It was his first career loss, and came in a title unification bout at UFC 270 against Francis Ngannou, in a fight he was winning through the first two rounds no less. Framed as a clash between former training partners even though they were more like gigantic ships passing in the night at Paris’ MMA Factory, the bout was a chance for the unbeaten rising star to topple the division’s colossus and claim the heavyweight throne for himself.

 

Following his quick start, Gane had no answer for Ngannoudeciding to wrestle and lost the final three rounds on all three scorecards.

 

A massive moment and a fight that started so well quickly got away from him, resulting in his first professional defeat, setting the stage for an abundance of questions to be asked this week as Gane makes his return in the main event of the UFC’s debut fight card in his adopted hometown.

 

Saturday night in Paris, the 31-year-old “Bon Gamin” — which translates to “Good Kid” — squares off with surging Australian banger Tai Tuivasa, who enters on a five-fight winning streak, where nary a single opponent has advanced beyond the two-minute mark of the second round.

 

In a vacuum, it’s a dangerous fight — a matchup with a proven knockout artist arriving with an abundance of confidence and zero pressure on his shoulders.

 

Tuivasa has lost before, having dealt with a three-fight slide that saw him go from emerging darling to discarded cautionary tale before his nearly two-year run of success, and isn’t the French former interim champion headlining the inaugural UFC event in France this weekend.

 

But none of these fights happen in a vacuum, which only cranks up the intrigue even further, making this a compelling fight that could very well tell everyone a great deal about what Gane is made of and what his future in the heavyweight division could look like.

 

THE FIRST ONE CAN BE TRICKY

 

Everyone deals with defeats differently, and that’s doubly true for the first professional setback of a fighter’s career.

 

Some athletes are happy to get it out of the way and no longer be burdened by carrying around a “0” in the loss column, aware of the extra pressure and scrutiny that comes with the longer that side of the ledger remains clean.

 

Look at how Kamaru Usman has handled his knockout loss to Leon Edwards two Saturdays back at UFC 278 — despite losing the welterweight title and his perfect record, “The Nigerian Nightmare” has been in good spirits, eager to run it back with the new British champion

 

No longer being the reigning, defending, undefeated and undisputed best welterweight in the world (and perhaps the best pound-for-pound fighter in the sport) could very well unleash an even better version of Usman once the rematch between the two comes around early next year.

 

Others struggle mightily, their aura of invincibly shattered, causing them to question everything — their skills, their preparation, their coaching, their career.

 

Ronda Rousey is the extreme example. The former Olympian and dominant female champion shielded her face as she walked through the airport following her loss to Holly Holm in Australia, and expressing suicidal thoughts on Ellen when she finally resurfaced. 

 

She did no real media ahead of her return bout a year later against Amanda Nunes, and departed the sport without talking to the native media after that bout ended badly as well.

 

Ngannou also serves as an interesting example here, although it wasn’t his first professional loss, but rather his first UFC setback.

 

After being heralded as a “once in a generation” talent while racing up the heavyweight ranks, he was thwarted in his quest to claim gold at UFC 220, turned back by Stipe Miocic. The champion was able to deal with Ngannou’s power better than his previous foes, and once he survived the first round, Miocic was able to lean on his superior conditioning and wrestling skills to grind out a unanimous decision victory.

 

When Ngannou returned six months later against Derrick Lewis, he looked like a deer in the headlines — a fighter stuck in the mud and stuck in his head, unable to pull the trigger after being embarrassed in his previous outing. He dropped a decision in one of the most lackluster fighters in UFC history, turning his first UFC setback into his first UFC losing streak.

 

Following that fight, Ngannou altered his training situation, connecting with Eric Nicksick at Xtreme Couture, solidified his bond with striking coach Dewey Cooper, and set out on a mission to make sure nothing like that ever happened again.

 

He’s unbeaten since, knocking out Miocic in their eventual rematch to claim the heavyweight title and affirming his standing as the top man in the division with his win over Gane in January.

 

And then there are those that simply take it in stride, as a thing that happened that they cannot change, but that also doesn’t have to mean all that much in the grand scheme of things.

 

HOW DOES FIGHTING AT HOME FACTOR IN?

 

Just as the way fighters handle losses varies from one competitor to the next, so too does fighting at home.

 

Some welcome the opportunity to sleep in their own bed and know where to get everything they need to make Fight Week as smooth as possible. They’re willing to trade those benefits for the challenges of increased media requests and responsibility, along with more people hitting them up for tickets, including that second cousin twice removed on their mom’s side that they hadn’t heard from ever before.

 

Others, like Derrick Lewis, find it too stressful, especially when fighting higher up on the fight card.

 

Lewis’ first UFC bout in his hometown of Houston took place at UFC 192 against Viktor Pesta. He was coming off a loss, they were the first bout of the night, and after getting those in attendance hyped with his signature walkout to Fat Pat’s “Tops Drop,” the hometown heavyweight scored a third-round stoppage win, sending the partisan crowd into hysterics.

 

He returned to Houston four-and-a-half years later, facing IlirLatifi in the opening bout of the UFC 247 main card, eking out a unanimous decision win in a tepid fight where he admitted that fighting at home was a bit of a chore. In his next two hometown assignments — UFC 265 against Gane, and UFC 271 against Tuivasa — Lewis was finished, again copping to the fact that being the local man was an uncomfortable role that put brought too much unwanted and unneeded pressure and responsibility.

 

Having spoken with Gane numerous times throughout his UFC career, he doesn’t strike me as someone that is going to collapse under the pressure of headlining a fight card in Paris, but then again, he’s never been asked to do it before, and does so this weekend coming off his first professional setback.

 

This is a massive moment for the sport in the French capital and the nation as a whole. Gane rightfully has been front-and-center, and will remain so all the way until he makes the walk to the Octagon on Saturday at Accor Arena.

 

AND WHAT ABOUT TUIVASA?

 

As mentioned earlier, Tuivasa is on a roll and a dangerous adversary under any condition, yet alone with all these additional variables to factor into the equation.

 

“Bam Bam” has been a terror since shifting his preparations to Dubai and taking his craft more seriously, rattling off five straight stoppages to emerge as a legitimate title threat. Still the fun-loving, carefree banger that enjoys an immediate post-fight “shoey” after each victory, the 29-year-old Australian is also a much more dynamic athlete that his appearance suggests and incredibly durable, making him a tough out for anyone that fancies keeping things standing.

 

And while Gane comes in facing myriad questions and carrying the weight of competing at home on his shoulders, Tuivasa feels like he’s playing with house money at this point.

 

After winning his first three UFC appearances and nine fights overall, he lost three straight and tumbled out of the rankings, looking like another classic “burn out hard and fast” tale. Even after posting three consecutive victories following a one-year sabbatical, few anticipated the beer-loving brawler from West Sydney would continue winning fights and emerge as a genuine title threat, yet here we are.

 

Tuivasa is a considerable underdog this weekend (he’s +400 as of this writing) which affords him the ability to go out there and fight freely, not that he knows any other way. He’s expected to lose, but when you carry as much power as he does while sporting an adamantium chin and a world of confidence, the pathway to pulling off a massive upset is there.

 

Gane will need to be careful getting into prolonged, chaotic exchanges on the feet with Tuivasa. He would be wise to not only make great use of both his reach advantage and superior movement, but could potentially benefit from putting the burly Australian on the deck as well, neutralizing his power and forcing him to defend in uncomfortable, unfamiliar positions.

 

ANSWERS COMING SATURDAY NIGHT

 

One of the beautiful things about mixed martial arts is that all of these questions are usually answered — in full or in part — whenever the next fight takes place, and the wait for that next fight is never too long.

 

Gane enters Saturday’s bout with Tuivasa in an entirely new space in many ways — coming off his first loss, headlining at home, facing questions about his skills and place in the division for the first time since arriving in the UFC — and the only way to know for sure how any or all of this has impacted him is for the 31-year-old to make the walk to the Octagon this weekend and get in a fistfight.

 

How will all this impact the ultra-talented French heavyweight?

 

Je ne sais pas, mais j’ai hâte de le savoir.



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