It was finished with a borderline call on a potentially illegal strike, but there’s no denying Ciryl Gane earned the biggest victory of his career Saturday night with a second-round finish of former UFC heavyweight champion Junior Dos Santos..
Gane (7-0 MMA, 4-0 UFC) dominated the bout with the down trending Dos Santos (21-9 MMA, 15-8 UFC) from the outset before earning the victory by TKO at 2:34 of the second round in a main card bout at UFC 256.
The final blow, during a sequence in which Dos Santos appeared a shot or two away from being finished, was an elbow that struck Dos Santos near the back of the head as he was turning away.
Gane implemented a game plan early of throwing leg kicks, landing over and over to Dos Santos’ lead leg at varying velocities and angles. Dos Santos, for his part, seemed to have trouble figuring out his range, though he did manage to land a couple heavy shots late in the round.
In the second, Gane continued with his approach, including one nasty leg kick that had JDS noticeably wincing. The final sequence began with a hellacious straight right and was followed with an elbow. A second elbow was the one that ended the fight.
Dos Santos protested the fight-ending strike to referee Jerin Velal and pointed to the replay, but his pleas fell on deaf ears.
Gane has earned finishes in three of his four UFC wins. Dos Santos has lost four straight bouts, all via TKO.
The heavyweight bout opened up the UFC 256 main card at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. It aired on pay-per-view following prelims on ESPN2/ESPN+.
Up-to-the-minute UFC 256 results:
- Ciryl Gane def. Junior Dos Santos via TKO (elbow, punches) – Round 2, 2:34
- Cub Swanson def. Daniel Pineda via knockout (punches) – Round 2, 1:52
- Rafael Fiziev def. Renato Moicano via knockout (punches) – Round 1, 4:05
- Gavin Tucker def. Billy Quarantillo via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
- Tecia Torres def. Sam Hughes via TKO (doctor’s stoppage) – Round 1, 5:00
- Chase Hooper def. Peter Barrett via submission (heel hook) – Round 3, 3:02
