Heavyweight prospect Ciryl Gane is about to get a very big step up in competition.
For the past few weeks, talk has swirled regarding Gane (6-0) being paired up with former UFC heavyweight champ Junior Dos Santos (21-8). Fueled by comments from none other than promotion president Dana White himself.
Well, it’s no longer just talk. On Wednesday, MMA Fighting was first to report that JDS and Gane was a done deal. The fight will take place at UFC 256, the final Pay-per-View card of the year for the company. The event goes down on December 12 at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Dos Santos will enter the fight badly in need of a win. He’s dropped his last three bouts, to Francis Ngannou, Curtis Blaydes, and Jairzinho Roenstruik, being finished each time out. “Cigano” last had his hand raised in March of 2019, against Derrick Lewis. Overall he’s 3-3 in his last six.
France’s Gane, meanwhile, has been perfect so far in his career. His last victory came against Tanner Boser at UFC Busan in December 2019. Gane was supposed to return to the octagon at various points in 2020, against Shamil Abdurakhimov, Sergei Pavovich, Abdurakhimov again, and finally Ante Delija. For various reasons, however, all of the match-ups fell through.
