During the post-match press conference dedicated to the UFC 265 tournament, UFC President Dana White responded to a journalist who reproached him for saying several times that he considered the organization’s interim heavyweight champion, Frenchman Ciryl Gane, a boring fighter.
Gane finished Derrick Lewis in the third round of their UFC 265 main event this past Saturday night in Houston, Texas. It was a dominant performance by the Frenchman, who moved to a perfect 10-0 in his MMA career, including a 7-0 mark in the UFC alone, with the win over Lewis. It was the biggest victory of Gane’s career to date and it earned him the interim heavyweight title, and a fight against UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou.
“One of the guys in the media asked me this week, apparently I had said he was a boring fighter. I don’t ever remember saying that. I don’t ever remember calling him boring. Listen, if I said it, I’ll own it. But I think that this guy has a style — he’s a big, powerful, badass heavyweight who moves like a middleweight,” White said.
“You saw tonight what he was able to do to Derrick Lewis, he completely shut him down. The punch stats, I don’t know specific numbers. It was in the hundreds and Derrick was at like three. He completely shut him down, put on a clinic, looked good doing it, made it look easy against a guy who can turn your lights out with one punch. This kid’s super talented and listen, when you start getting sucked into people saying that you’re boring and stuff like that, you’ve gotta tune that out and fight your style.”