Ciryl Gane and The Real Winners and Losers from UFC Fight Night 226
September 2, 2023Ciryl Gane and The Real Winners and Losers from UFC Fight Night 226
We're in the final few weeks of summer.
So what better time for Dana White and Co. to load up the family truckster and take the gang on a European vacation?
OK, the transportation is a bit more advanced than Clark W. Griswold and his movie entourage managed in the mid-1980s, but the concept was similar as the UFC pulled into the Accor Arena in Paris for its second-ever show on French soil.
Heavyweight Ciryl Gane was back as the headliner against streaking Moldovan contender Serghei Spivac, whose three-fight win streak had lifted him to seventh in the big-boy division—five spots behind Gane, a two-time title challenger, at No. 2.
Gane was a third-round winner over Tai Tuivasa when the Octagon last rolled into Paris exactly 52 weeks ago, and he got to work late Saturday afternoon (EDT) atop a show whose prelims began at 12:30 p.m. with a main card start of 3 p.m.
The B/R combat team was in place for all the happenings on the continent and comprised the definitive of the event's winners and losers in real-time. Take a look at what we came up with and drop a thought or two of your own in the comments.
Winner: Capturing the Moment
Sometimes, a star turn simply begs for hyperbole.
Analyst Paul Felder called it an "almost flawless victory." Cohort Michael Bisping upped the ante and deemed it "a perfect performance." And blow-by-blow man John Gooden took the extra step and deemed it a "masterpiece" while gushing that they "ought to hang it in the Louvre."
Truth be told, none were too far from reality.
Such was the complete nature of Ciryl Gane's throttling of Serghei Spivac, during which the two-time heavyweight title challenger made a streaking seventh-ranked contender—who'd beaten three straight quality foes in barely more than nine minutes—look far more like a cauliflower punching bag.
"After my last fight it was my mission to prove I'm still here," Gane said. "He was tough, but I was so glad to be here in front of you. This is where I belong."
Indeed, it was a long way from Las Vegas for Gane, who'd last been seen surrendering to Jon Jones after just 124 seconds of their bout for a then-vacant heavyweight title at UFC 285 in March. It was a second unsatisfying bite at the apple for the accomplished French striker, who'd also dropped a unanimous decision to then-champ Francis Ngannou 14 months at UFC 270.
And had he been taken to the mat and smothered by Spivac in a similar fashion, it might have been the end of the line for the now-33-year-old. Instead, having dispatched one of the division's hottest fighters, he's well within reason to suggest yet another title run is in his sight lines.
"We f--ked up twice, with Jon Jones and Francis," Gane said, "but I stayed with the game plan, and you see the result."
Gane was quickly busy strafing Spivac with jabs, kicks, and body punches in the opening moments of the fight but the true turning point came about halfway through the first round when he expertly sprawled to defend a takedown attempt. And when he landed a hard knee to Spivac's midsection as the two men got back to their feet, it was almost as if the Moldovan's competitive balloon began deflating.
Gane landed 51 significant strikes to Spivac's seven in the first round—blending 19 to both the head and body and 13 more to the legs—and more body shots to begin the second ushered in the final sequence. Gane landed a hard right hand around Spivac's guard at the 3-minute mark and continued to bombard him with flurries as referee Marc Goddard warned the stricken fighter to respond.
He didn't. And Goddard ended it at 3:44 of the second.
Spivac walked back to his corner with no protest while Gane celebrated with his team and basked in the approval of a partisan crowd and perhaps whetted the appetite of No. 4 contender Tom Aspinall seated near the cage. Aspinall, during fight week, had called for a match with Saturday's winner.
"My mission, whoever it is, is to keep going forward," Gane said. "My mission is to get the belt. That's what I'm going to do."
Loser: Thug Life
The Rose Namajunas motor never stopped revving.
The two-time strawweight champ kept moving forward in her flyweight debut against No. 3 contender and hometown favorite Manon Fiorot, kept winging punches with her left and right hands, and kept tossing out the occasional kicks to her opponent's head and body.
But it never looked quite right.
Now 31 and coming off 16 months of inactivity, Namajunas was always a pave or two behind when to work rate and looked like a fighter far closer to the end of the line than the beginning of a title push.
The unanimous decision, in which one judge gave Fiorot all three rounds and the other two saw it two rounds to one in her favor, was the second straight loss for Namajunas and her sixth in 18 overall fights and fourth in 13 UFC outings since she graduated from The Ultimate Fighter in 2014.
She's still ranked second at strawweight, but has moved up to 125 pounds to kickstart a career revival.
Instead, it's Fiorot who's looking for bigger things now that she's equaled Erin Blanchfield's current flyweight-best streak of six straight wins.
"That was a former champion," she said, "now I want to play for the championship. Absolutely, I'm the one who needs to take on (the winner of the Alexa Grasso/Valentina Shevchenko rematch on Sept. 16). I deserve a shot at being a champion."
Winner: Justifying Promotion
Benoit Saint-Denis has had quite a year.
The former member of the French special forces was a prelim card winner on the country's inaugural UFC show last September and he proved worthy of promotion to the main card with a brutal second-round stoppage of highly regarded lightweight gatekeeper Thiago Moises.
Nicknamed the "God of War," Saint-Denis arrived to the cage with the biggest crowd pop of the afternoon and immediately delivered for the fans, splitting Moises open with an elbow and pounding him with fluid combinations with the hands and well-placed, albeit occasionally low, body kicks.
He continued the barrage into the second, nimbly mixing in stand-up punishment with four takedowns and never letting Moises, an accomplished jiu-jitsu ace, get into anything resembling an offensive flow.
The end ultimately came with just 16 seconds remaining in the second, with Moises turtled on his knees and Saint-Denis mounted on his back while peppering the right side of the Brazilian's head with his right hand.
Not all the shots got past Moises' gloves, but the stricken fighter failed to respond to multiple exhortations from referee Lukasz Bosacki to defend himself and improve his position.
"This guy's gonna be in the rankings soon," analyst Paul Felder said.
"He's gonna be fighting some big fights. I think we're looking at a future star in the lightweight division. How do you not love to watch this guy fight?"
Loser: Making It Clear
It was a tough call for the partisan French crowd.
With featherweights William Gomis and Yanis Ghemmouri both fighting in their home countries, there was no slam-dunk reaction when their scheduled three-rounder ended in abrupt controversy.
The final sequence came just short of the final round's midway point when Gomis launched a kick that reached its destination when the toes on his left foot contacted Ghemmouri's trunks, a couple of inches to the left and slightly lower than the UFC logo in the center of the beltline.
Ghemmouri's cup visibly shifted under the trunks as Gomis followed through on the kick.
Ghemmouri instantly recoiled and writhed in pain as if the blow had landed low, but referee Loic Pora did not step in and instead ordered the men to "fight, fight."
Ghemmouri continued to reel backward and disengage, prompting Pora to wave it off and declare Gomis a winner at 2:20 of the round.
No significant replay review was employed, and boos instantly rained down when Bruce Buffer made the TKO result official.
The ESPN broadcast crew was split across the table, with Michael Bisping suggesting it was a fair blow while John Gooden disagreed, and Paul Felder suggested it was close enough to a clear foul to warrant a moment or two for Ghemmouri to recover.
"The foot is touching the cup there," Felder said as a replay was shown.
"It's gonna move things around. It's gonna cause pain. I don't think it was low. You want to go ahead and stop it even if it's anywhere close."
For his sake, Gomis, who's won 11 in a row, staked out the competitive high road.
"I've been fighting for over 10 years," he said. "I know how to aim my shots."
Winner: Getting His Kicks
It's not always about punches and chokes.
Popular French featherweight Morgan Charrière made his UFC debut memorable and got the main card off to an abrupt start when he finished Italian foe Manolo Zecchini with a trio of body kicks.
Charrière initially put Zecchini on skates with a kick to the liver, then dumped him to the floor with a right kick that went straight up the middle to Zecchini's belly.
A final shot to the midsection landed as Zecchini shelled up and drew an intervention from Rich Mitchell at 3:51 of the first.
It was an initial octagonal appearance after 29 fights across nine promotions for Charrière, who'd won 18 times, finished 13 opponents, and won a featherweight title in the Cage Warriors promotion. Now, his 14 finishes have included 11 KOs and submissions by ankle lock, heel hook and rear-naked choke.
Most recently, he's won four straight—three by finish—since last losing in October 2021.
And now that he's reached the main stage, he's got definite plans.
"When I went for the finish, I wanted to kick his ass," Charrière said. "Now that I'm here I just want everything."
Loser: Backing Up Bluster
Caolan Loughran was the perfect visiting heel.
He mocked France's MMA culture. He trash-talked his opponent. And as he strode confidently from the locker room to the cage, he casually flipped off a crowd whose volume immediately spiked.
But the cocky Irish bantamweight forgot to do one thing:
He didn't finish the job.
Instead of backing up his words with menace, Loughran too often stood and watched as hometown southpaw Taylor Lapilus boxed his ears off and was met with sufficient resistance whenever he did get in close—ultimately dropping a perfectly scored unanimous decision in the prelim card finale.
All three judges scored it 29-28 for Lapilus, who'd gone 3-1 in an inaugural UFC run better than seven years ago before a release sent him back to a successful eight-fight run on smaller stages.
"I do my talking in the cage," he said. "I don't listen to anything outside. In here is where it matters."
Lapilus held striking advantages in each of three rounds and defended nine of 11 takedown attempts while successfully limiting damage each time Loughran got inside his punches.
The Irishman lost for the first time in nine pro fights and quickly left the cage after the decision was announced, giving Lapilus a brief hug as the crowd popped once again.
"This crowd is the best in the world," Lapilus said. "These fans are the best."
Loser: Return of Rhys
No one with any sense can question Rhys McKee's toughness.
But the Northern Irishman's luck might be another thing.
The 27-year-old welterweight was freight-trained by phenom Khamzat Chimaev in his UFC debut three summers ago on Fight Island, then dropped a decision to veteran Alex Morono and found himself out of the Octagon and back to the Cage Warriors promotion from which he'd graduated.
He won three straight and snatched a title belt in his return to the UK, but he ran into the same sort of misfortune upon returning Saturday against powerful foe Ange Loosa.
McKee was bloodied in the first round and battered to the point of a near stoppage in the second before rallying in the third and chasing a late finish of his own, leaving Loosa stumbling across the mat and perhaps just moments away from a TKO loss when the final horn sounded.
Loosa survived and was awarded a decision, sweeping the cards by 30-27, 29-28 and 29-28 counts.
McKee, meanwhile, fell to 0-3 in the UFC and walked away with a cut alongside his left eye and bad swollen under his right.
"When you've been drilled like that up against the fence and taken down, you get gun shy," analyst Paul Felder said. "Meanwhile, (Loosa) looks world-class right now—the wrestling, the pace, the power, and the speed."
Winner: Domestic Emotion
Bantamweight Nora Cornolle had, as the kids say, all the feels.
Upon hearing Bruce Buffer's call making a victory over Joselyne Edwards official, the 33-year-old French fan favorite dropped to her knees and struggled to hold back the tears.
The win was her seventh in eight pro fights but was extra special because it came both in her home country and in her UFC debut.
"It feels amazing," she said. "Thank you, Paris. Thank you, all French people."
Amazing, and perhaps just a bit unexpected.
Cornolle held striking edges in two rounds and was even in a third, but she was taken down five times in eight tries and was controlled for nearly nine of the fight's 15 overall minutes.
Still, two judges gave her all three rounds, and another saw her better in two of three.
B/R, meanwhile, had it 29-28—or two rounds to one—for Edwards, who'd won three straight in the UFC after starting with two losses in three fights.
"I'm a striker but I can go on the ground, too, and do good things," Cornolle said. "She's a smart fighter and she didn't want to stand up for three rounds."
Two fights earlier, aging French veteran Zarah Fairn failed in a fourth attempt at a first UFC victory when she dropped a wide decision to former LFA bantamweight champ Jacqueline Cavalcanti in the show opener.
All three judges scored it 30-27 for Cavalcanti, dropping Fairn to 6-7 as a pro since 2013 and 0-4 since her octagonal debut at UFC 243 in 2019.
Full Card Results
Main Card
Ciryl Gane def. Serghei Spivac by TKO (punches), 3:44, Round 2
Manon Fiorot def. Rose Namajunas by unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)
Benoit Saint Denis def. Thiago Moises by TKO (strikes), 4:44, Round 2
Volkan Oezdemir def. Bogdan Guskov by submission (rear-naked choke), 3:46, Round 1
William Gomis def. Yanis Ghemmouri by TKO (kick), 2:20, Round 3
Morgan Charrière def. Manolo Zecchini by KO (kicks), 3:51, Round 1
Preliminary Card
Taylor Lapilus def. Caolan Loughran by unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
Ange Loosa def. Rhys McKee by unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)
Nora Cornolle def. Joselyne Edwards by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
Farid Basharat def. Kleidison Rodrigues by submission (arm triangle), 4:15, Round 1
Jacqueline Cavalcanti def. Zarah Fairn by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)