When the T-Mobile arena leaked the headliner for UFC 285: Jon Jones vs Cyril Gane. The MMA world asked 1 question, and it had nothing to do with either man: What happened to Ngannou?
Dana White admitted later on that evening that the leak was correct, Jon Jones would be coming back to face Cyril Gane for the vacant heavyweight title and Francis Ngannou had been stripped and released from the UFC.
Francis Ngannou had been in contract talks with the UFC for over two years now and since they couldn’t come to an agreement, Ngannou was released so he could follow his boxing dream.
We last saw Jon Jones at UFC 247 where he faced Dominick Reyes in a controversial decision which saw Jones walk away with the Unanimous Decision. However, a few months later Jones relinquished the 205-pound belt and announced his intention to move to heavyweight.
Cyril Gane’s last title fight came at UFC 270 as he went all 5 rounds with Francis Ngannou. His striking is so clean he turned Francis into a wrestler from rounds 3 to 5 and will provide a tough test on the feet for Jon Jones.
Last time out we saw Cyril Gane knock out Tai Tuivasa in round 3 as the headliner bout at UFC Paris. Although he suffered adversity during the fight, he came back and got himself a knockout over a big heavyweight brawler in the division.
Sergei Pavlovich is set to be the backup fighter if something were to happen to either fighter, however, we’ll be hoping it doesn’t get to that.
Tune into UFC 285 with the Against The Fence guys at 3 am on Sunday morning for a watch-along, it’s sure to be an all-timer!
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