Ciryl Gane was disappointed in his performance against Jon Jones.
For the first time in his career, Gane (11-2 MMA, 8-2 UFC) was stopped when he was submitted in just over two minutes by Jones (27-1 MMA, 21-1 UFC) in their vacant heavyweight title fight this past March at UFC 285.
In what was his heavyweight debut, Jones dragged Gane down and submitted him with a front guillotine choke, but Gane said Jones’ strength did not surprise him.
“Like I said before this fight, I knew already Jon Jones is an athlete,” Gane told MMA Junkie on Wednesday. “He’s an athlete like me. He did a lot of sports; me too. He’s not only just physical, but in his brain. Everything is ready to be a good athlete and physically also. And I knew already he’s going to be ready for this fight. He trained a lot during the three years, so I was not surprised by that, no.”
Gane admits he did not follow the plan of his coach, Fernand Lopez, who urged him to jab and not lunge forward. However, it was a missed left cross that allowed Jones to grab a hold of him and take him down.
“I don’t know why exactly, but I cannot manage my distance very well during some moments, and I did a mistake,” Gane said. “It wasn’t possible to manage the distance, and I did some stuff to break this atmosphere, and I did a mistake at this moment.
“Maybe he knew already I’m going to do this mistake, and he took his opportunity. … During all the camp Fernand Lopez told me every time we started training, jab and no big hand. Just jab. And what I did? A big hand. Big mistake, and he took the opportunity.”
Daniel Cormier said Jones looked visibly slower at heavyweight, and although Gane only stood with him for a few seconds, he agreed that Jones did not look too fast in there.
“He was not fast,” Gane said. “Maybe he was not fast, but I was not good, too. I didn’t manage my distance. I was not good, but I remember he was not fast. He didn’t have fast hands. He had power because he touched me, I don’t remember where, but he landed some punches with power, but not fast.”
Gane will look to rebound when he faces Serghei Spivac (16-3 MMA, 7-3 UFC) in a UFC Fight Night headliner on Sept. 2 at Accor Arena in Paris.
