Former UFC heavyweight champion Ciryl Gane lost the belt to Jon Jones last year in less than a round, and reflecting on that night ahead of his comeback fight at UFC 310 he’s come to the conclusion that he simply didn’t show up.
“When I look back at it, it was obvious that I was not there,” Gane says on the UFC 310 Countdown show. “It represented exactly how I felt on the day of the fight. It was a total misunderstanding of what was happening. I don’t recognize myself there. It’s something l’ve never done in my life. I’ve never fought that way before. My distance management, my movement, the alertness that I love to show, I had none of that.”
While that loss is clearly a sore point for the 34-year-old, he also manages to put a positive spin on it by suggesting that he’s learned from the experience.
“Looking back, I think that this experience may have been beneficial. For me personally, it helped me to refocus on myself, it gave me a spirit of revenge. A competitive spirit.”
Gane will be able to put that to the test on Saturday night when he goes up against Alexander Volkov on the main card of the UFC’s final PPV event of the year in Las Vegas.
