On 4 March 2023, Jon Jones will make his long-awaited return to the UFC’s octagon for a shot at the vacant heavyweight title. Standing in his way is the speedy striker Ciryl Gane, who’ll meet ‘Bones’ at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
It’s one of the most highly-anticipated fights of the last couple of years, driven by the star power of Jones. Most grade him among the sport’s finest, alongside the likes of Georges St-Pierre and Khabib Nurmagomedov, even if much of his mystique has come by way of controversies. For Gane, this is the biggest fight of his career so far.
Tale of the tape
Since becoming the UFC’s youngest champion at 23 years old in 2011, Jones has gone on to stack his MMA record to 26-1, with the one loss being a 2009 disqualification due to illegal elbows. Gane’s a relative newcomer to the professional ranks, at 11-1 now aged 32, with his only loss coming to the last heavyweight champion, Francis Ngannou.
This will be Jones’ first foray into the heavyweight division, having dominated at light heavyweight for much of his career. Gane’s much more accustomed to battling at heavyweight, but there isn’t much difference in size between the American and Frenchman. Jones stands 6’4’’ and reportedly now weighs a massive 255lbs – up 51lbs from his last UFC weigh-in.
Gane relies on his footwork, upper-body movement, and hand speed, being more of a traditional striker, but he’s certainly capable of using his 6’5’’, 247-lb frame to throw opponents to the mat. Jones is also a clinical striker – or he was at 205 lbs – and has proven himself capable of wrestling the best of them, specifically Daniel Cormier.
Jones favoured ahead of UFC 285
As impressive as Gane has been in his ascendency to the upper echelons of the UFC’s heavyweight division, the oddsmakers have been swayed by Jones’ new physique and the pull of the punters. He opened as the underdog, but now, leading bookmakers have Gane out at 13/10 to win, with Jones in as the clear 2/3 favourite. Powering the odds for many is the DraftKings bonus, which offers a ‘bet and get’ of $5 to get instantly get $200 in free bets.
With this, there’ll be plenty of UFC fans wagering the initial $5 on either side of the bout, then using some of the free bets to back the other fighter. Of course, many MMA fighters will expect Jones to live up to his reputation, but the speed of Gane will start to convince some of the Frenchman’s chances. Clearly, though, more are backing the American.
A done deal for Jones to beat Gane?
Too many times has the UFC seen clear-cut favorites fall to their underdog opponents, but at light heavyweight, Jones certainly possessed the skill set to pick apart a fighter like Gane. As a stand-up striker, Bones’ 84.5-inch reach allowed him to stifle so many top-class opponents, and then his 44 per cent takedown accuracy gives him another avenue to success. That said, as MMAJunkie reports from Quinton Jackson, he’s prone to dirty tactics.
Gane is a much cleaner striker, and is fleet-footed, but doesn’t fight for takedowns. It’s all about clinical punches, flair attacks, skin-slapping kicks, and pouncing on opportunities to throw a knee in. He’s very athletic, but against Ngannou, a kick to the head was caught, and he was held down for long spells. Like Ngannou, Jones could seek to deflect the more ambitious strikes and then smother his opponent.
There are natural question marks surrounding Jones at this much heftier weight, but he has the frame to hold it, has taken a good two years to bulk up properly, and is still wonderfully talented. So overall, it makes sense that the odds are stacking up against Gane.