A heavyweight fight between Junior dos Santos and Cyril Gane has been booked for UFC 256 on December 12th in Las Vegas.
This is a must win fight for former champion JDS as the 36-year-old is currently on a three-fight losing slump over the past 18 months.
That spell began with a TKO loss to Gane’s teammate Francis Ngannou last year, but he’s since been TKO’d on two more occasions by both Curtis Blaydes and Jairzinho Rozenstruik this year.
Nevertheless, dos Santos still holds onto the No.6 spot on the heavyweight rankings, but a loss to the No.13 placed Gane could accelerate his slide down the ladder.
Arguably, Gane is certainly the least established and experienced opponent that JDS has fought in his entire UFC run as he’s currently only a little over two years into his MMA career and holds a 6-0 record, but he’s already a highly regarded prospect.
Three of those victories have so far come inside the Octagon, securing submission wins over Raphael Pessoa and Don’Tale Mayes, followed by a decision victory against Tanner Boser.
By the time he goes up against JDS it’ll have been a year since his last fight though, and it will clearly be a huge step up in competition for the French fighter, but it’s also a huge opportunity to make a name for himself and set up other major heavyweight fights in 2021.
JDS vs. Gane joins a UFC 256 card that’s set to be headlined by Amanda Nunes latest featherweight title defense against Megan Anderson, while bantamweight champion Petr Yan goes up against Aljamain Sterling in the co-main event.
