Ciryl Gane understands why UFC president Dana White might not have been thrilled with the UFC Fight Night 186 headliner.
Gane (8-0 MMA, 5-0 UFC) earned a relatively uneventful unanimous decision win over Jairzinho Rozenstruik (11-2 MMA, 5-2 UFC) in Saturday’s heavyweight main event at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. It was his first headlining spot, and apparently White wasn’t elated by what he saw.
Although White did not attend the UFC Fight Night 186 post-fight news conference, he relayed some thoughts on Gane’s win through Yahoo! Sports’ Kevin Iole, who shared the message directly to Gane.
“Everybody’s talking about Ciryl being this big contender, but look at what Francis Ngannou did to Jairzinho,” White wrote to Iole. “This was his coming out party and his chance to show the world who he is. He won, but let’s leave it at that. He won.”
Gane said he understands White’s perspective, although he doesn’t take all the blame. The cageside commentary team of Jon Anik, Michael Bisping and Paul Felder placed a lot of heat on Rozenstruik, who connected with just 42 significant strikes over the 25 minutes, as opposed to 102 from Gane.
There wasn’t a big highlight-reel or dramatic moment in the fight. And for that reason, Gane said he gets why White might’ve been underwhelmed.
“I can understand that,” Gane said. “He is the boss, and he wants to make money, so you want the guy marketable. The people want the show. They want the big KO. So yes, I don’t finish the fight. I tried, but I don’t do it. I can understand that (criticism), but I’m OK.”
Putting all that aside, Gane said he’s feeling quite positive about the win. He just beat a more experienced opponent in his first UFC main event to advance to 8-0 in his career, and he’s content with the effort he put forth to get there.
“I think I did it well,” Gane said. “I managed the fight on the feet. I tried to go down. I did the takedown. I think I managed well the fight on the feet.”
