The UFC sets up shop in France for the first time Saturday, and plenty of eyeballs will be on UFC Fight Night 209.
Those eyeballs won’t be just because it’s the UFC’s first trip to Paris, one of the most famous cities in the world.
At the top of the card, former interim heavyweight champion Ciryl Gane (10-1 MMA, 7-1 UFC), who trains in Paris, will try to wow his home fans against Tai Tuivasa (15-3 MMA, 8-3 UFC). And in the co-main event, former middleweight title challenger Marvin Vettori (18-4-1 MMA, 8-3-1 UFC) meets ex-champ Robert Whittaker (23-6 MMA, 14-4 UFC).
Gane is looking to get back on track after he lost a title unification bout against champ Francis Ngannou in January. That was the first loss of his career. Tuivasa is going after his sixth straight win – and all five in his current streak have been knockouts, including three in a row worthy of post-fight bonuses.
Whittaker is coming off a title-shot loss to Israel Adesanya in February, but before that had three straight wins after he lost the belt to Adesaanya in 2019. Adesanya is the only one who has beaten Whittaker over a period of more than eight years. And Vettori has had much the same fate – his only two losses the past six or so years have been to Adesanya. Still, both could be right back in the title picture with a win Saturday.
Tuivasa is the only one of those four who has yet to fight for a UFC belt. But of the main and co-main event fighters, who has the clearest path to a title shot with a win in Paris?
That’s the question we asked our “Spinning Back Clique” panel of Brian “Goze” Garcia, Mike Bohn and Nolan King, who discussed the topic with host “Gorgeous” George Garcia. You can watch their conversation in the video above, or check out this week’s full episode below.
