Tai Tuivasa just may be the hardest puncher Ciryl Gane has ever faced.
Gane fought Tuivasa at the UFC Paris main event on Saturday. While Gane won the fight, he was forced to overcome some severe adversities. In the second round, Tuivasa dropped Gane with a right hand that nearly turned the lights off for the Frenchman, and “Bon Gamin” admits he was in serious trouble.
“The feeling was just, because I didn’t see anything, talking about his punch, that’s why I fell down, and I think the ground woke me up,” Gane told Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour. “When my ass touched the ground I said, ‘Oh, what happening?’ And I understood and reacted directly, that he caught me so I go ahead on his legs to grab and stand up, and after that, I took a rest — maybe three, four seconds — and moved away and it was OK, but he touched me for real.
” He’s dangerous. Sometimes you see guys you don’t understand, but sometimes he holds something in his hand, just as if. When the guy touches you, you go down. That’s it. Incredible.”
During his UFC career, Gane has faced some of the biggest punchers in heavyweight history, including Francis Ngannou, Derrick Lewis, Jairzinho Rozenstruik, and Junior Dos Santos. Even still, he has high praise for Tuivasa, saying he’s never felt that kind of power before.
” No [I’ve never felt power like that before],” Gane “When you look at the punch, it really doesn’t look hard, powerful. But when he touches you, he touches you for real. That’s why I say, I don’t know exactly. I can’t explain, but he has something in his hands and this is the first time I’ve felt this.”
Despite how much trouble he was in during the second round though, Gane found a way to battle back, hurting Tuivasa in the second round before finishing the fight in the third round.
“I was always in, even this experience when I go down, I was in, I was focused,” Gane said. “And the last round, it was, ‘OK man, you run on me, so I’ve got not choice but to do the real war now.’ Normally I like to do the ‘Bon Gamin’ style, move away, but at this moment, it was not possible, so that’s why I faked to go away and I went in with the knee, boom, attacked him. It was great fighting. I gave him the uppercut, middle knee… It was cool.”
Not only was the fight great, according to Gane, it was the best win of his career thus far, including his interim heavyweight title victory over Derrick Lewis.
“100 percent, the feeling was really different,” Gane said when asked if this was the biggest win of his career. It was “Ciryl!” at the start of the fight. Ciryl! Ciryl! It was crazy. It made me very happy. It’s hard to explain the feelings, but after the fight I felt like I wanted everyone screaming. It was great to see everyone happy so I walked [around] around the cage. Maybe two or three [times], looked at me like “Wow, that’s crazy!” So, it was an amazing moment .”
With the win, Gane moves to 8-1 in his UFC career, and the former interim champion is now targeting a fight with Jon Jones or another title shot.
