Paris, France – The heavyweight division is looking for a rising star and UFC’s Sergei Spivac will try to jump into the top 5 with a victory over Ciryl Gane at UFC Paris on Saturday.
“I don’t look at myself as a horse. I look at myself as a polar bear,” Spivac told reporters including Cageside Press through a translator on Wednesday.
“Concentration yeah is obviously to jump up and to win.”
Spivac (16-3) comes into UFC Paris riding a three-fight win streak and fresh off a victory over Derrick Lewis earlier this year. The momentum he gained in the victory over Lewis he hopes to bring into this fight with Gane.
“Every fight is different. Derrick is a great fighter. It just happened that we went through him that time. Doesn’t take anything from him that we won,” he said.
Now he gets a Gane that is 1-2 in his last three although the two losses were against former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou and current heavyweight champion Jon Jones.
“I prepare really hard. I put my entire self into training. The guys that are from my team they know, they see how much I put in it every practice, does not matter who I prepare for,” he said.
“I don’t think about Ciryl or who’s going to be in the cage. I’ve been in the sport since I’ve was 7-years-old. There’s been a lot of people, a lot of names in front of me, and a lot of different competitions. There’s not time for me to really think about who my next opponent’s going to be. What I have to think and I have to concentrate about is myself, my preparation, and I’m going to come out there and we’ll see what happens.”
Spivac enters enemy territory at UFC Paris as he faces the hometown fighter in the main event. Playing the “bad guy” to Gane isn’t something Spivak thinks about.
“You know it doesn’t matter for me,” Spivak told Cageside Press.
“It’s not what I think about. What I think about is myself to make sure that I’m prepared and I’m focused. I want to make sure to do my job, and the rest does not matter.”
Watch the entire media day scrum with Sergei Spivac above. He takes on Ciryl Gane at UFC Paris on Saturday.
