Ciryl Gane is seemingly preparing to utilize every weapon in his arsenal on June 14.
People backing Alex Pereira to knock out Ciryl Gane in their interim heavyweight title fight do so because of how the matchup looks on paper.
Both men are known for their striking skills, but ‘Poatan’ being a decorated kickboxing champion before making the switch to MMA gives him an advantage over nearly every possible opponent.
While Tom Aspinall is picking Gane due to his movement, ‘Bon Gamin’ recently stressed that he has more tools at his disposal than just the skillset he tends to favor.
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Choose which man will leave the White House as the interim UFC heavyweight champion on June 14!
Ciryl Gane suggests he’ll use his entire MMA skillset to beat Alex Pereira on June 14
Ciryl Gane has spent time around the likes of Artem Vakhitov before stepping inside the Octagon with a kickboxer as dangerous as Alex Pereira.
The French fighter’s grappling has been his downfall in some of the biggest fights of his career, while his striking and movement are his biggest assets.
Despite this, when Gane was recently asked what a fight between him and ‘Poatan’ looks like if it entirely plays out on the feet, he dismissed this notion.
“I don’t want to say it’s going to be 100% a striking matchup,” he said in an interview with UFC on Paramount+. “This is MMA and everybody knows I can do also some wrestling, some take downs, some stuff like that. I can finish the fight also on the ground so I’m not going to say 100% it’s going to be a striking matchup.”
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It would be a wise move from Gane to at least threaten some grappling during the fight just to give Pereira another element to think about, which could impact their striking exchanges.
That being said, many opponents have found inside the Octagon that planning to exploit the Brazilian striker’s overall MMA skillset and actually being able to do so are two very different things.
Pereira hasn’t been taken down in a UFC fight since his first win over Jiri Prochazka in November, 2023.
The opponent who took him down the most, Jan Blachowicz, may have recorded over seven and a half minutes of control time, but he tired himself out in the process and lost a split decision.
‘Poatan’ currently has a takedown defense rate of 79%, which is significantly higher than Gane’s (47%), though the Frenchman has been fighting much larger opponents.
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