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MMA: UFC Fight Night-Gane vs Tuivasa
The UFC’s first visit to France was a bang-up event. With a deeper card than the pay-per-view that follows it, the UFC did a great job booking the main and co-main events, and getting some fresh French talent showcased. The frenchmen went undefeated in a successful night both in entertainment value and at the gate. Without too much expository text, here’s: 6 Fights to Make After UFC Fight Night 209: Paris.
Ciryl Gane
This is the best the heavyweight division has looked in a decade. With Francis Ngannou at the top, Jon Jones hopefully making his debut in the division before the world explodes, Stipe Miocic having yet to fight since losing his title, Curtis Blaydes climbing his way back up to being one fight away from the title, and now, Ciryl Gane, once again proving he’s among the best of the best.
Coming from someone who thought he beat Ngannou, Ciryl Gane has more than proven himself to be good enough to win the title. As impressive his dismantling of Tai Tuivasa was, it didn’t help doubters negate his one glaring issue: wrestling. Wrestling is almost never the basis of a heavyweight fight, but of the aforementioned names sitting at the top of the division, Gane was already comfortably outwrestled by Ngannou, who is far-and-away the worst in that category of the four. That’s scary for him moving forward.
Speaking of moving forward, it’s been talked about in these types of articles of mine for weeks about the intricacies of the heavyweight division’s matchmaking because of all the ambiguity surrounding it. Jon Jones has been planning a trip up to the heavyweight division for over two years now and he’s still MIA. Who knows what’s happening with Ngannou. He says he isn’t anywhere near fight-ready shape, which stalls everything out. Will he move onto boxing? Will he ever defend his title? Who knows. What we do know is this division needs to start turning the cogs at the top, and strike while the iron is hot.
If Ngannou can’t fight soon, the UFC will book an interim title fight. Ideally, they’d want Jones vs. Miocic up there, but again, who knows if they’re both ready by the end of the year. If that’s possible, that would leave Gane and Tuivasa as the odd men out. That’s as unfavorable of a matchup as Gane could have, but beating the best wrestler the heavyweight division has ever seen would be the best way to prove Gane’s deficiencies as a thing of the past. If Jones or Miocic can’t make the interim title fight, or even more shocking, Ngannou is ready now and takes Jones or Miocic on for the title, Gane should be next up ahead of Blaydes. Whew this is taking the breath out of me.
This whole mess at the top makes booking these fights frequent a whole lot of “well, if this happens we could ____.” Let’s hope we get some underlined, definitive answers here soon.
Book: Cyril Gane vs. Curtis Blaydes (if Jones vs. Miocic for the interim title), or Ciryl Gane vs. Stipe Miocic for the interim title (if Jones isn’t ready), or Ciryl Gane vs. Stipe Miocic in a non-title fight (if Ngannou is back and ready to take on Jon Jones). Damn this sucks.
Tai Tuivasa
Tai Tuivasa did something incredible and raised his stock in a knockout loss. What everyone already knew about “Bam Bam” coming into the fight only proved itself to be more true. There’s no one tougher in the heavyweight division right now and he has stones for hands. Yes, Tuivasa did come away with a loss in a fight that could have granted him the title, but there’s still good things to take away from the fight.
Tai Tuivasa made Ciryl Gane look human on the feet. Not only was he the first person to ever knock the Frenchman down, but he was the only man in the octagon to pose a serious threat on the feet. Even the current heavyweight demigod Francis Ngannou wasn’t able to touch-up Gane on the feet, but it was Tuivasa to put him in precarious situations more than once.
The thing with Tai is that he isn’t the most technical fighter– and fight fans everywhere are okay to acknowledge that. He’s shown to look clueless on his back, wings punches that can be seen from a mile away, and doesn’t have a developed kicking or wrestling game. But, damn is he still a good fighter. Whatever he lacks in technique, he makes up for ten-fold in heart and will. There were at least 5 different instances in the fight with Gane that any other fighter in Tuivasa’s position is lying on the ground as the referee calls the fight off. Maybe he won’t ever win the title, but he’s putting out a great showing every time he steps in the cage.
It’s also not really fair to count him out entirely. The Derrick Lewis knockout was definitely the most impressive of his career, but he is far from the first person to get a win over Lewis. Tuivasa is still only 29 and has proven he isn’t scared to fight the most dangerous fighters in the division. He’s still near the top of a division desperately lacking in any character, so the UFC matchmakers will jump at the opportunity to push him back out against the division’s best. Maybe a half-step down won’t hurt.
Book: Tai Tuivasa vs. Sergei Pavlovich
Robert Whittaker
The top of the middleweight division is Israel Adesanya, Robert Whittaker, and everyone else, as of now. That can change in an instant if Adesanya is once again bested by Alex Pereira or Khamzat is as real as it seems and hops back up to middleweight if he conquers the welterweights. But for now, it’s these two guys. The issue with Whittaker is, despite the last fight against Adesanya being extremely competitive (in which many think Whittaker actually won) Izzy still has that 2-0 record over him. The first fight was a beatdown by way of whatever Stylebender wanted, and their second was devoid of any action. Everyone knows these are the two best fighters at 185 at the moment, so in any other case it would make total sense to book the trilogy.
Whittaker was the #1 ranked fighter in his division who just beat the #2 ranked fighter in the division. Any other instance, he is unquestionably next in line, but the promotion can’t always work like that. Whittaker is in a similar scenario as Max Holloway where if he does get the third fight with Adesanya– and loses– it almost guarantees they will never be booked again, even if Whittaker is the clear-cut next best guy.
The best-case scenario for Whittaker (and pretty much everyone else who lost to Adesanya) would be if Alex Pereira finally dethroned Izzy. If Adesanya finally gets revenge over “Poatan,” Whittaker would need to get a win over the last person at the top of the middleweight division he hasn’t beaten yet to convince Dana and crew to give him one last shot at the middleweight king.
Book: Robert Whittaker vs. Alex Pereira (if he beats Israel Adesanya for the title), or Robert Whittaker vs. Paolo Costa
Marvin Vettori
Marvin Vettori fell into the group of middleweights unable to top both Israel Adesanya and Robert Whittaker at the top of the division which already includes some of the middleweight division’s best fighters like Jared Cannonier, Derek Brunson, and Kelvin Gastelum. There’s no shame in losing to two of the best 185 lb fighters of all time, but the trajectory for Vettori isn’t looking great right now, even if he’s ranked second in the division.
He’s already had two shots to beat Adesanya. He failed both times in two very uneventful fights that nobody is itching to see a third time. If Adesanya defends his title successfully against Pereira, Vettori is still several fights away from getting a trilogy fight against Stylebender. It’s unlucky for him, but that’s the name of the game. No one wants to see a trilogy in a matchup where one fighter is 0-2 in two relatively uncompetitive, unexciting fights.
The plus-side for Vettori is there are a couple of fighters in the same pocket of middleweight title-fight purgatory with him, and any of them are good matchups for him. If Vettori doesn’t need too much time to recover, an opportunity arises as Derek Brunson pulled out of his fight with Jared Cannonier. Considering Cannonier’s last fight was for the title, a win against him could boost Vettori’s stock back to being a fight away from the title. If everything works out in his favor and Adesanya isn’t holding the belt by then, he could be next in line for the title after Whittaker.
Book: Marvin Vettori vs. Jared Cannonier
Nassourdine Imavov
Nassourdine Imavov and Joaquin Buckley had a lot of heat coming into their fight, with the American doing most of the talking. Luckily for Imavov countered that nicely by doing most of the fighting when it came time for them to meet in the octagon. The bout picked up as time went on with Buckley feeling more urgency to try and finish the fight, or at least close the gap Imavov built in the first two rounds, but couldn’t accomplish the feat. Imavov is now on a 3-fight win streak, with Buckley being the most impressive name on the list.
The middleweight division has very clear issues with UFC classism, with a ton of second-tier contenders not quite on the level of Adesanya or Whittaker, and that’s where Imavov sits right now. He can surely hop over a lot of those guys with a few more wins, and one name that would have made a lot of sense immediately after his fight with Buckley would be to move onto Darren Till. But just a day ago, news broke of Till taking on South African scrapper Dricus Du Plessis, so those plans flew out the window. Just a few weeks ago, when Jack Hermansson defeated Chris Curtis, I suggested he be rebooked with Till, but much like a fight between “The Gorilla” and Imavov, it’s impossible now. So with Hermansson needing a fighter up from the level of his last opponent Curtis, and Imavov wanting an opponent who could fastrack him inside the top 10 of the rankings, it seems like these two fighting is meant for each other.
One thing to note is Imavov looked visibly fatigued in the third round against Buckley, and that won’t do him any good against the Joker. Hermansson is a guy who can go 5 rounds on any given night, and with both guys ranked, there’s a decent chance if this fight were to be made, it could headline a fight night which means it’s booked for 5 rounds. This would be a massive test for Imavov to prove he isn’t just another gatekeeper in a division seemingly full of them.
Book: Nassourdine Imavov vs. Jack Hermansson
Nathaniel Wood
It’s only been two fights since Nathaniel Wood moved up to featherweight, but he’s gone a perfect 2-0 in them, while never better. The way he picked a normally lethal striker in Charles Jourdain over the course of three rounds was immensely impressive. The boxing of Wood is super legit, and he seems like one of the quicker punchers in the 145ers. Joudain was already a great test for Wood, but another step in competition would likely put a number next to his name in the rankings. He’s tested the best of the unranked, so a natural step forward would be to test the worst of the ranked to leapfrog one of the bottom-end fighters.
Sodiq Yusuf is without a fight partner which would make for an interesting prospect vs prospect (no pun intended) bout, but Alex Caceres is just too perfect not to take Wood on next. Caceres has had the pleasure of being the test for upcoming, young fighters many a time, with fights against Chase Hooper, Seung Woo Choi, Chase Hooper, Yair Rodriguez, Sergio Pettis, and mostar recently Sodiq Yusuf. It would be a great test for Wood to put a name like Caceres’ on his resume next.
Book: Nathaniel Wood vs. Alex Caceres
