Dana White Skeptical That Ciryl Gane’s Career Setbacks Come Down to Bad Luck
Dana White does not agree with the notion that Ciryl Gane's losses and setbacks in the UFC are all down to his 'bad luck.'
Ciryl Gane left Madison Square Garden with the undisputed UFC heavyweight title still wrapped around his waist on Saturday night, yet his bumpy road to the top remains a major talking point.
Following Gane’s grueling unanimous decision victory over Josh Hokit in the UFC 334 main event, UFC CEO Dana White was asked at the post-fight press conference about the champion’s reputation and past misfortunes. While Gane has previously brushed off criticism regarding accidental fouls, like the eye pokes that ended his bout with Tom Aspinall in a no-contest, and blamed tough breaks for his championship stumbles, White wasn't completely sold on the narrative.
"I don’t know if he’s ever been cast as the villain. I mean, you gotta earn that spot," White said. "And some of that, you say unlucky or whatever. He even said unlucky with Jon Jones. I don’t know if that was unlucky. Jon Jones went in and did what he did."
White also pointed back to Gane's first title unification bout at UFC 270, where the Frenchman surrendered a late grappling exchange that cost him the fight on the scorecards.
"He lost to Francis in a fight that he was winning and went for the armbar in the last round and ended up losing that round," White added. "And then tonight, but all the other things, the eye pokes and stuff like that, I mean, it all happened. I guess you could call some of it bad luck, but that’s a lot of bad luck."
Tough Losses, Not Tough Breaks
The setbacks that the reporter was talking about are losses to Francis Ngannou and Jon Jones, the heaviest hitter the UFC has seen and the consensus GOAT of MMA, so chalking those losses up to "bad luck" does not make sense. Against Ngannou, Gane was out-wrestled over the final three rounds, giving up four takedowns en route to a decision loss. Against Jones at UFC 285, he was submitted via guillotine choke in just two minutes.
Now sitting at 15-2 with one no-contest, Gane showed plenty of grit at UFC 334, landing a division-record 237 significant strikes to survive Hokit's pressure. If Gane wants to quiet the critics for good, stacking clean, dominant defenses will do far more than blaming the octagon gods.
