Ciryl Gane just picked up a third-round knockout win over Derrick Lewis at UFC 265. A proud recipient of the interim title, Ciryl Gane’s next opponent will be his former teammate now heavyweight champ, Francis Ngannou. And with the way things are shaping up in the heavyweight division, UFC President Dana White couldn’t be happier.

Earlier this year, the UFC was looking to book Derrick Lewis vs Francis Ngannou for the champion’s first title defense. However, after a series of disagreements regarding the champ’s timeline of return, the UFC opted to go with the next best option: Derrick Lewis vs Ciryl Gane. With the French native emerging victorious, we now have a heavyweight matchup between two elite fighters who trained under the same roof at the MMA factory.

While Ngannou later switched teams after his first loss to Stipe Miocic, Ciryl Gane stayed, and two years into his UFC career, ‘Bon Gamin’ is one fight away from being the heavyweight champion of the world.

This is a fight that has all the ingredients to go down as one of the classic heavyweight matchups, which is why Dana White can be content with his decision to book the interim title bout. 

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“What you always want to do when you either build fighters, build fights or put on fights, is you want to have the best possible guys fighting each other. It doesn’t get any better than this you couldn’t write it, you couldn’t script it. F***g Vince couldn’t have wrote a better script for this whole thing. It’s beautiful.”   

With Ngannou rearing to get back in the octagon, and Gane barely taking any damage from Lewis, we can expect to see the two go at it sometime early next year.

Ciryl Gane vs Francis Ngannou- When will this happen?

Even without all the history between them, a fight between Ciryl Gane and Francis Ngannou is an intriguing matchup.  

On one hand, ‘The Predator‘, is more than happy to decapitate his opponents with a single blow. While Ciryl Gane, with his exceptional footwork and mobility, can pick opponents apart from a safe distance.   

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Furthermore, unlike most of his opponents, Ngannou will not have the height advantage over the 6’4″, Ciryl Gane. Bon Gamin‘s technical prowess could be too much for the champion to deal with. But one slip up against Ngannou could see him getting knocked out into oblivion.

What do you think? Who will win this matchup? Let us know in the comments.  

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