Ciryl Gane is once again the interim heavyweight champion after he stunned and finished Alex Pereira in the UFC White House co-main event.
It was a remarkable performance from the Frenchman as he picked Pereira apart on the feet before landing a perfectly timed jab that put the Brazilian down on the canvas. Gane followed with some devasating elbows but once the fight got back on the feet, he just continued dishing out punishment.
Another barrage of punches left Pereira out on his feet as the referee finally stepped in to stop the contest with the end coming at 1:27 in round two.
“We worked on it,” Gane said about his finish. “I’m really proud of myself, really proud of my team. We knew it was possible to do that. We knew, everybody knows I’m a great athlete. I’m really technical but people underestimate me. We will see. Now I just want to say thank you.
“Next, everybody knows, let’s do that in Paris in September.”
The next fight is a title unification bout against Tom Aspinall once his eye heals and he’s ready to compete again. But before he faces Aspinall again, Gane first had to ge through Pereira.
Pereira was head hunting early with a pair of head kicks defended well by Gane. The kicks continued but this time Pereira went to the legs while Gane was tossing out his lead jab, although he wasn’t connecting much in the opening exchanges.
Gane got more active late in the round and he clipped Pereira with a well-timed combination and followed with a head kick of his own as Pereira was forced to back up and play defense. There were also a couple of brief takedown attempts from Gane that just kept Pereira guessing about his intentions.
Just before the horn sounded, Pereira clipped Gane with a slick combination of his own to get Gane’s attention.
As the second round got started, Gane’s confidence swelled and that’s when he crushed Pereira with a nasty jab that dropped the former two-division champion to the ground. Gane nearly got a knockout with a series of elbows landing on the side of Pereira’s head but the fight eventually got back to the feet.
From there, Pereira just unloaded punches in succession with several shots slipping through Pereira’s defense and just rattling his head before the referee finally stopped the fight.
Gane was somehow almost counted out with all the talk about Pereira making history as potentially becoming the first ever three-division champion in UFC history. Instead, Gane is holding UFC gold again and now he awaits the chance to settle his fight with Aspinall to determine the best heavyweight int the sport.
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