Ciryl Gane understands why UFC President Dana White may not have been so thrilled with the UFC Fight Night 186 headliner.
Gane (8-0 MMA, 5-0 UFC) got a relatively dull unanimous decision on the win over Jairzinho Rozenstruik (11-2 MMA, 5-2 UFC) in Saturday’s heavyweight main event at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. It was his first headlining spot and apparently White wasn’t thrilled with what he saw.
While White did not attend the UFC Fight Night 186 post-fight press conference, he reported via Yahoo! some thoughts on Gane’s victory through. Sports’ Kevin Iole, who shared the message directly to Gane.
“Everyone talks about Ciryl being such a big contender, but look what Francis Ngannou has done to Jairzinho,” White wrote to Iole. “This was his coming out party and his chance to show the world who he is. He won, but let’s leave it at that. He won.”
Gane said he understands White’s perspective, although he doesn’t take all the blame. The commentary team of Jon Anik, Michael Bisping and Paul Felder put a lot of heat on Rozenstruik, who only scored 42 important hits over the course of 25 minutes, as opposed to 102 by Gane.
There was no major climax or dramatic moment in the fight. And for that reason, Gane said he understands why White might have been impressed.
“I can understand that,” said Gane. “He’s the boss and he wants to make money, so you want the guy to be marketable. People want the show. They want the big KO. So yeah, I’m not going to finish the fight. I’ve tried, but I won’t. I can understand that (criticism), but I’m okay. “
Aside from all that, Gane said he feels quite positive about the win. He just beat a more experienced opponent in his first UFC main event to advance to 8-0 in his career, and he’s pleased with the effort he put into getting there.
“I think I did well,” said Gane. “I managed the fight on the feet. I tried to go down. I have done the removal. I think I did the fight on the feet well. “