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Ciryl Gane | Take Three
French Standout Discusses Lessons Learned As He Readies To Challenge For Heavyweight Title For A Third Time At UFC 321: Aspinall vs Gane
Though equal parts excited, happy and grateful for the opportunity in front of him this weekend in Abu Dhabi, Ciryl Gane is looking at his undisputed heavyweight title bout with Tom Aspinall at UFC 321 like any other fight.
“My approach? We took this fight seriously, like every fight,” he said earlier this week when asked if Saturday’s main event carries any greater weight given the stakes. “It feels a little like a regular fight, but everybody knows that at the end, everything can change.”
How To Watch And Stream UFC 321: Aspinall vs Gane
The final piece of that sentence rings true on many levels, which is why fights of this magnitude are often so highly anticipated, just as this weekend’s final pairing at Etihad Arena most certainly is.
For several years, it was Gane that was viewed as the future of the heavyweight division: a dynamic athlete who moved differently than his more flat-footed predecessors. He was the evolutionary successor to Cain Velasquez, but French, and with more fluidity in the striking game and less focus on wrestling and freakish cardio. He rocketed through the ranks, winning three fights in five months to begin his UFC tenure, eventually claiming interim gold with a third-round stoppage win over Derrick Lewis just a few days before the three-year anniversary of his debut.
That set up an epic showdown with former teammate and sparring partner Francis Ngannou that ended with “The Predator” debuting his offensive wrestling skills to salt away the final two rounds and claim victory, handing “Bon Gamin” his first professional defeat. A bounce-back victory over Tai Tuivasa at home in Paris put Gane in a position to face Jon Jones for the vacant heavyweight title at UFC 285, and for the second time in 15 months, he departed the Octagon empty handed.
“Every moment is an experience,” began Gane, reflecting on his journey in the UFC ahead of this third opportunity to become undisputed heavyweight champion. “I’m not thinking about the result; I’m just thinking about fight week and stuff like that. When you win, when you lose, this helps you to grow up. I’ve got experience on the big day.
Fight By Fight Preview | UFC 321: Aspinall vs Gane
“I started really late in MMA and was rising really quickly, and when it’s like that, you don’t have any questions of yourself; you just do your thing, go to training, and you win, you win, you win.
“But when you lose,” he added with a smile, pausing before qualifying his two setbacks. “It was different against Francis Ngannou than Jon Jones. Against Francis, it was 50/50; the champion stayed the champion. But with Jon Jones, it was a real loss, and I remember the bad buzz around this fight, and all of this helps you to have a different approach, what you must do [in order to succeed at this level].
“Since Jon Jones, we started to build something different, something stronger.”
Following a frustrating win over Alexander Volkov last December in a fight where he suffered a foot injury early and many argued over the split decision verdict, Gane and his team have been in the gym preparing for what they believed was an inevitable showdown with the British standout.
Order UFC 321: Aspinall vs Gane
Aspinall had successfully defended his interim title in July, keeping him in position to potentially challenge the winner of the UFC 309 clash between Jones and two-time champ Stipe Miocic, which Jones won handily. While many anticipated that “Bones” would join Miocic in hanging up the gloves rather than stepping into the Octagon with the younger, dangerous Aspinall, the all-time great waffled, leaving the door open for the two to possibly meet.
Having already witnessed how these things tended to work out, Gane and company began getting ready.
“After the fight with Volkov, we started to go to the gym around March,” said the 35-year-old challenger before detailing the logic behind his decision and the expectations they had for when this weekend’s fight may take place. “We started a camp because we knew we were gonna have a fight because there was too much [talk] with [Jones and Aspinall]. We remembered what happened with Jones and Francis Ngannou, so we started this camp really early.
“We expected maybe to have a fight in June or July or something like that, so we started early and really motivated [for] this fight, so it was really easy to go [through these months] in the gym.”
WATCH: UFC 321 Countdown | Tom Aspinall: Road To Undisputed | The Documentary
Gane and Aspinall have run parallel for much of their UFC careers, similar to how Velasquez and Junior Dos Santos did more than a decade earlier.
While Gane arrived roughly a year ahead of his British counterpart, their immediate success and obvious upside made them prime candidates to cross paths at some point along the way. As is often the case with ascending talents, many in the media and fanbase wanted to see them share the Octagon on the way up, but a bout between the two never materialized, leaving them in a position — similar to Velasquez and Dos Santos — to meet for the first time with the undisputed heavyweight title hanging in the balance.
“I think it’s great timing,” Gane said of meeting Aspinall now. “I know many people have been waiting for this fight since a few years, but today is a great moment.”
And after coming up short in his previous two attempts to claim this title, Gane is hopeful that Saturday night at Etihad Arena will be a great moment as well.
“It means a lot,” he said of potentially becoming the first French fighter to claim undisputed gold in the UFC. “This is gonna make me really proud for the second time because I already did this with the interim belt. The people saw already the belt, but at this time, I can feel it: the people are behind me, they support me in France really strong, and I really appreciate it, but I must focus on myself.
“I really want to do this for me, first, and then after, for my coach, after that my friends, my family, and the fans behind me, of course.”
So how does he anticipate things playing out?
“Unfortunately, I’m not a magician,” began Gane, suggesting that he can’t just conjure up a particular ending to Saturday night’s fistic festivities. “So if I can finish the fight really early, I’m gonna go this way, but also, I can go the 25 minutes.
“You can expect a huge fight with big opposition,” he added. “A really technical fight, really fast — two guys that are really comfortable with their skills and a real dogfight.”
Zac Pacleb contributed to this story
UFC 321: Aspinall vs Gane took place live from Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi on October 25, 2025. See the final Prelim & Main Card Results, Official Scorecards and Who Won Bonuses - and relive the action on UFC FIGHT PASS!
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