Ciryl Gane has now been officially confirmed as the UFC’s undisputed heavyweight champion after Tom Aspinall vacated the belt and will make his first title defense against Josh Hokit in the main event of UFC 334 at Madison Square Garden in New York City on November 14th.

The fight was revealed at tonight’s UFC 331 event in Los Angeles, where it was also clarified that Dana White had misspoke when he said yesterday in an interview that Gane wasn’t the undisputed champ.

Gane’s first title defense being against Hokit is somewhat of a surprise given that he’s only ranked No.6 in the rankings, and no doubt the likes of the No.1 ranked contender Alexander Volkov and No.2 placed Sergei Pavlovich will be frustrated that they’ve been overlooked for this golden opportunity.

Hokit has managed to grab a lot of attention in a short space of time though, managing to back up his trash-talking outside of the cage with big performances inside of it, including winning a memorable slug-fest against Curtis Blaydes back in April, followed up by a 2nd round TKO finish of Derrick Lewis at the UFC: White House event in June.

Now he gets fast-tracked to a title shot against Gane, who initially won the interim heavyweight title by TKO’ing Alex Pereira in the 2nd round at the UFC: White House show, and holds an overall 11-2-1 record in the promotion.

That’s not the only big fight confirmed for UFC 334 though, as the co-main event will feature current women’s bantamweight champion Kayla Harrison going up against all-time great Amanda Nunes, who returns to the Octagon after retiring while still a double-champion over three years ago.