Dana White Heaps Praise On New Champion Ciryl Gane

Some watching UFC 265 questioned what Derrick Lewis was doing. But UFC president Dana White saw it differently.

Ciryl Gane became the new interim UFC heavyweight champion with a one-sided victory over Lewis this past weekend.

And while there was those who called out Lewis, White believes what Gane did was more impressive.

“He completely shut him down, put on a clinic, looked good doing it, made it look easy against a guy who can turn the lights out with one punch,” White said of Gane (thanks to MMA Fighting for the quotes). “This kid’s super talented. Listen, when you get sucked into listening to people talk about ‘you’re boring’ and you’re this and that, you’ve got to tune that sh*t out and fight your style and fight the way that you fight. That’s what he did.”

White also answered a question that dated back to comments he made about Gane and his style. 

“I got asked that during press day and apparently one of the guys was saying that I had said he was a boring fighter,” White relayed said. “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.

You saw what he was able to do to Derrick Lewis. Completely shut him down. I don’t know specific numbers but it was in the hundreds (of strikes) and Derrick was like three (strikes).”

With the performance, Gane is now expected to meet Francis Ngannou to unify the titles next. White said if he has his way, that fight will be made “ASAP.”

“We’ll get it done as soon as it’s possible to do,” he said.