Ciryl Gane rose to UFC prominence quicker than most of his peers. Nevertheless, never once did “Bon Gamin” feel surreal as he knew he was already late to start a pro MMA career and everything should really be done as soon as possible.
Proving the doubters Wrong
In an interview with the UFC ahead of his heavyweight showdown with Sergey Spivak at UFC Paris, Gane recalled moving to a closer gym, which happened to the MMA Factory, to train Muay Thai and being told by his coach to try MMA.
At the time, Gane was already a veteran Muay Thai fighter but his coach and friends convinced him to fight in MMA. At first, “Bon Gamin” said people doubted him until he proved them wrong by finishing his MMA debut opponent in less than two minutes.
It was also at MMA Factory where a UFC personnel approached him and introduced him to the promotion.
“People say how you started to fight I said this is not my choice, my friend come, I studied [martial arts] because the coach told me, let’s go to try something in the Muay Thai… I knocked the door to the MMA Factory because it was just less than 10 minutes from my house… I started the training and uh in the [they] told me, ‘Now you are here you can continue the training, it’s MMA, it’s different but try it and I did just do training and after two training, he called me and said, ‘Ok. I think you’re gonna stop’ He asked me to stop the Muay Thai and one other one person in MMA and he proposed me some plan, a big plan and he talk about the UFC, for me it was really new. He talk about the MMA what is the UFC, the cash. [I knew] nothing [but] okay why not? Let’s try, let’s bet on it,” Gane recounted.
“I finished the fight after just one minute and 46 seconds… And every people talk about me before the fight [like] ‘He’s not a real heavy weight, Muay Thai is not MMA be careful man’ and I finish the fighter. It was a really good answer,” he added. “After that, I did a second fight and just after my second fight, I remember the management at (MMA) Factory talked with the UFC already for coming to the UFC. It was really quick, really fast. Everything was really fast when I started (from) Muay Thai.
Ciryl knew he had to be Quick
In 2019, Gane made his UFC debut and finished his opponent Don’Tale Mayes via submission. He then went unbeaten in his next five consecutive fights which included notable wins over Junior Dos Santos and Derrick Lewis.
Looking back, Gane said everything happened so fast but on the other hand, he knew he was a bit late and therefore, he wasn’t surprised by his “fast” rise to UFC stardom.
“I knew already. I started Muay Thai, I was 25. I started MMA 2018, so I was 28. And I knew already 28 is (late start for MMA). So let’s keep in a rush, I’m okay,” Gane reflected. “let’s go. ‘You wanna do that? Okay, let’s go.’ I follow my coach, I follow my manager.”
Gane is coming off a title fight loss to Jon Jones at UFC 285. He will hope to get back to title contention by beating No. 7 heavyweight contender Spivak at UFC Paris this weekend.
