There was a time when Ciryl Gane absolutely demolished his opponents in the MMA cage. Even though he has garnered 9 victories in the UFC, he lost 2 of his bouts against the strongest of opponents. Yes, he faced his first-ever defeat in the MMA realm at the hands of Francis Ngannou at UFC 270. That was also the final time the fighting community witnessed the Cameroonian fighter’s skills in the Octagon. 

But how did the main event at UFC 270 proceed? As Gane gets ready for his next fight, let’s take a look at the battle between the big gentlemen. After all, this was a turning point in both of their careers.

How did Francis Ngannou vs. Ciryl Gane go down?

The war between Ngannou and Gane at UFC 270 was filled with the pitter-patter of strikes. ‘The Predator’, known for his powerful fists, managed to stupefy the Frenchman a few times during their bout. But for the majority of the fight, Gane was successful in evading his opponent’s scoring hits. While Ngannou depended on his striking game, Gane had strategized to use his grappling skills against his opponent. Following the fight, in an interview with Ariel Helwani on his talk show, ‘Bon Gamin’ revealed, “We just need to finish the fight before the end. That’s why I did this takedown, I did very well, and after I did this choice to go to the ankle, unfortunately I did some mistakes in my technique.”

Even though Gane was well versed in the ground control realm, it wasn’t enough to get him a win against Ngannou. After all, he did train under the guidance of the legendary Randy Couture. ‘The Predator’ was successful in taking Gane down 4 times. But that didn’t stop Gane from trying. In the final round, the French fighter landed a takedown and soon went for a leg lock. However, things didn’t work in the Frenchman’s favor as Ngannou took over the fight and ended up winning the judges’ majority scores. 

Gane continued, “You see, this technique for me, I can do that on everybody that I have in my gym. High-level wrestling, high-level BJJ, and I can do it. I’m really comfortable on this technique, so that’s why I decided to do that, because I know the position was really good for me to go on this technique. I was really good. I was sure to finish the fight, in my mind.”

But ‘Bon Gamin’ knew that sending his feet to Ngannou’s head was a mistake he never should have made. Had he not used his legs in the fight and put more emphasis on his technique, the fight might have tilted in Gane’s favor. Nevertheless, he did win the second round against the Cameroonian, which assured the world of Gane’s prowess. But when he went on to ask for a rematch against Ngannou, he found out that the former heavyweight champ was having troubles with the UFC. The Frenchman revealed his agitation in the post-fight press conference and said, “If he leaves like that, I don’t want that. I want my rematch, I want to do this fight a second time. I want this fight, I want this rematch.”

This dispute between Ngannou and the MMA promotion was heavily highlighted when Dana White remained absent when ‘The Predator’ wore the championship belt for the first time. But why did the UFC head honcho do so?

Why did Dana White not put the belt on Francis Ngannou?

4 days after UFC 270, White shared a conversation with ESPN’s Laura Sanko. That was when he revealed the real reason why he didn’t wrap the belt around Ngannou’s waist. He said, “For anybody that thinks I was showing any kind of disrespect towards Francis—I saw Francis all week, you idiots. I shook his hand, I said hi to him. I was out there for the staredowns, the whole thing.” Well, it has been 2 years since then and we still don’t know what pressing matters prevented the UFC CEO from wrapping the heavyweight belt around the former champ’s waist. 

On top of that, White was also absent at the post-fight press conference. When the Cameroonian champ got to know about it, he was left in absolute shock. Soon after that, his coach, Eric Nicksick told Helwani, “I wish [White] would’ve taken the high road and just went in and done it, and just been a part of that. Because the last couple weeks, I felt like Dana and Francis had been mending things. I felt like those two had been trying to become better and heal that relationship. So for him to not be there—again, I don’t know his reasons why, I don’t know if he got, all of a sudden he had a stomach issue, something—but for him not to be there, I just thought it was kind of a weak move.”

It didn’t take long for Ngannou to move out of the UFC and become a free agent. As he wished, he did fight 2 boxing bouts. And now, he’s ruling over the heavyweight division at PFL. Gane, on the other hand, had yet another chance to become the champion by defeating Jon Jones. But the bout went to ‘Bones’ in a blink of an eye. Now, he’s all set to continue his struggle and get his hands on the heavyweight championship belt. And his next hurdle is Alexander Volkov waiting for him at UFC 310.

What do you think of the bout between Gane and Ngannou? Should the Frenchman take himself to PFL for a rematch against their heavyweight champ? Let us know in the commetns down below.