Ciryl
Gane capped off a near perfect night for the French faithful on
Saturday at
UFC Fight Night 226 as he knocked out
Sergey
Spivak in Round No. 2. Gane showed that he’s not the type of
fighter that’s going to be wrestled to be beaten and that it’s
going to take a special athlete to defeat him. He coasted to a
spectacular victory to cap off “UFC Paris” and set himself up for
good things in the future. In today’s Aftermath column, we will be
looking at the footwork of “Bon Gamin” and how he uses his unique
skills to stay out of trouble against a wrestler.
Foundational Footwork for Success
Everyone knew that Gane is a special talent as a striker. After
going 1-2 in his last three, with wrestling being his Achilles’
heel, Spivak was a special type of trap fight that was both
winnable for Gane and one that could end in disaster. He was given
the opportunity to show that a fighter like Spivak can beat him or
if he’s just allergic to wrestling. Instead of Gane’s allergies, it
was Spivak’s that were on display. The key to Bon Gamin’s
performance at “UFC Paris” was the body work. From the very jump,
Gane attacked the body of his opponent and Spivak just wilted under
the assault. It seemed as if near the end, Spivak had a broken rib
protruding from his side and the MMA Factory fighter went there
without remorse.
via GIPHY
But the body attack was only one part of the winning formula for
the 33-year-old. As we discussed in UFC Paris Beforemath, Gane
utilized the push kick, a step-up low kick, the intercepting knee
and sound footwork to keep Spivak from being able to get into a
clinch situation. The step up outside low kick was especially
effective because it didn’t allow Spivak to grab Gane and also let
the Frenchman cross step back and escape from forward pressure.
To start our first diagram, let’s establish the stance. Gane will
fight out of southpaw or orthodox but spent a lot of this fight in
southpaw just to smash the lead leg with the step-up low kick.
Above, we see (1) Gane in that stance. He will (2) bring that rear
foot forward and smash the thigh of Spivak, something a bit bolder
to do against someone who is desperate to grab your leg to get you
to the ground. Spivak thinks he has Gane on one leg and can blitz
to land and clinch up. To get away, Gane will (3) bring that front
foot he kicked with back and switch to orthodox. This allows him to
exit to the rear and to safety. The reason this stance switch works
so well is because of the natural mechanics of the outside low
kick. As that front foot moves back, Gane can put it down back into
the original stance, southpaw in this case, or he can bring it
behind his former rear foot. The pivot back brings the body back
and creates space which requires the opponent to move further to
grab the body. This allows a fighter like Gane a bit more time to
get out of the pocket.
As the fight went on, Spivak became more and more frustrated and
started headhunting. Gane wouldn’t let that change how he fought,
however.
(1) Again, Gane is in southpaw to Spivak’s orthodox. As Spivak is
looking to throw and enter a clinch, (2) Gane will duck under the
left hook coming his way. (3) Spivak wants to clinch up and Gane
will want to exit. This time, he will (4) exit, but this time on an
angle. This allows Gane that space previously mentioned. When
Spivak did manage to get close and grab onto Gane, the Frenchman
did manage to toss his hips back, sprawl, and stay out of
danger.
(1) Establishing a base, we are in another mirrored stance. Gane
will (2) feint with his hips with a slight tweak and Spivak thinks
Gane is actually kicking. He will (3) duck in and look to grab
Gane. Gane picks this up and (4) tosses his hips back and shucks
off Spivak, denying the takedown attempt. The trick to this is the
pivot out while Gane throws his hips back. Spivak, who is trying to
drive through Gane, is forced to resort to chasing Gane as he’s
retreating away and around his lead leg. This gives Gane the
advantage in space he needs to shuck off Spivak. All in all,
Ciryl
Gane showed that it’s going to take a bit more than just
wrestling to beat him. Dragging him down is going to take an
incredibly strong fighter like Francis N’Gannou or a wrestling
mastermind like
Jon Jones to
take him down. And if a fighter cannot get Gane to the ground, they
are pretty much dead in the water.
Shooting fish in a barrel
There’s not a better striker in the heavyweight division than
Ciryl
Gane. His kickboxing pedigree has served him well in his
meteoric run through an aging heavyweight division and got him to
the title twice. Because of all the smart defensive moves by Gane,
he was free to pick apart Spivak on his terms for the most part.
Just a week ago we saw
Max
Holloway using his southpaw stance to step out to the side and
line up his left hand for some damage. Gane used a similar approach
against Spivak, betting on him struggling with the southpaw stance
and land some blows. Consistently Gane gained the outside foot
advantage and picked Spivak apart with the escape alley being the
pivot out and retreat at an angle.
The outside advantage is not a hard and fast rule in MMA or boxing.
But Gane places his bets on knowing his tools in any given stance
better than his opponent. The only person who never had trouble
with that was
Jon Jones who
ran through him. Spivak, alternatively, did not know what to do
when someone stepped to the outside and Gane’s bet paid off.
(1) For the last time, southpaw versus orthodox, and Gane is the
southpaw. Feinting, (2) Spivak expects a shot up top and covers up.
Gane will use this moment to (3) step around Gane to the outside
and Spivak doesn’t turn into him. (4) Gane will use this created
position to land to the body. And this was the story of the entire
night. Gane would step to the outside, punch the body, and Spivak
would reset. Occasionally we’d see Gane land a knee or fight the
hands. But the theme of the night was Gane in his element, landing
at range, and denying the clinch. While he won’t get the chance to
fight for the title anytime soon unless Jones retires, as is
rumored after his main event at UFC 295. The only thing he can do
is go out there and fight
Tom
Aspinall or
Sergei
Pavlovich. Let’s see how Jones vs. Miocic goes and then we can
see where Gane sits for his title hopes.