UFC Paris Aftermath: Homecoming For Ciryl Gane, Tuivasa Still Awesome
Gane showed out for the French faithful but Tuivasa’s stock still rose.
What a fight. What a night. Last night the UFC showed out for their debut card in France that was UFC Paris. The main event was a heavyweight banger with Ciryl Gane taking the win over Tai Tuivasa. Let’s break it down with today’s Aftermath column!
Tai Tuivasa had a good showing of himself at UFC Paris
Tai Tuivasa has nothing to shake his head about after his performance at UFC Paris. While he was knocked out in round three, he came out and gave Gane a tough time, something most fighters couldn’t do. There was some talk about how Tuivasa didn’t deserve his number three ranking in the heavyweight division but after knocking down Gane, he showed that he’s just a hair away from that. He will probably drop to the 4 or 5 spot and that’s probably deserving and accurate.
Tuivasa struggled with the body shot from Ciryl Gane, specifically the roundhouse kick. There were several times in the fight where Gane had Tuivasa hurt and the only thing was the fact that Tuivasa literally has that dog in him. Against Gane you’re damned if you do and you’re damned if you don’t. To stop the body shots, Tuivasa would have to lower his hands to block the kick. But he was already struggling with the jab speed of Gane and that would have exasperated the problem. And, of course, if he keeps his hands high, he gets blasted to the body.
One thing Tai Tuivasa could do is switch stances. With Tuivasa being an orthodox fighter, his liver is on his right side. That opens up the liver shot for Gane’s roundhouse kicks when the stances are bladed in orthodox. Tuivasa did try to deal with the kicks by switching stances to hide the shot on his back side. But Gane is so strong with his kicks that even in southpaw, they hurt Tuivasa.
Tuivasa was actually slick on the stance switch. With Gane being much longer, he effectively used the jab to hurt Tai Tuivasa all night. To close the distance, Tai Tuivasa would step through and use the stance switch from southpaw to orthodox (or vice versa) to close the distance. One fighter who does this well in the UFC is none other than Dustin Poirier.
While Tuivasa did manage to step into range well at times against Gane, he didn’t get much damage in. Early in the fight is the best example that we use in the diagram above. With Gane standing southpaw, (1) we see Tuivasa switch to southpaw himself, blading the stance as we talked about earlier. Not only does Ciryl Gane have a long reach, but he uses his jab quite well to slow down an advancing opponent. To close the distance, (2) Tuivasa reaches out with his rear hand (it becomes his lead hand in the stance switch) to parry the jab of Gane and steps through to orthodox to close the distance. Now that Tuivasa has found the range, (3) he fires in the low kick from Gane as he panic punches a jab to keep Tuivasa away despite Tai Tuivasa already being in.
While Tuivasa lost to Gane, his stock rose from creating the chaos we said he would need to create in Wednesday’s Beforemath section and knocked down Gane. He also took the punishment doled out by Gane and fought back. He will likely fight down next and whoever he fights should beware.
Ciryl Gane and a little adversity
A little adversity can go a long way in a fighter’s career and Ciryl Gane got just that at UFC Paris. In the second round he was clipped by Tuivasa and fought back to hurt the Aussie native in that same round. In fact, round 2 of Gane and Tuivasa’s fight was the best round of the night by far. Gane managed to get the finish and get brownie points in front of his home-country French faithful.
In Beforemath, I specifically mentioned the body of Tai Tuivasa as a weakness. Here is an excerpt from that article:
“Another option for Gane is the body. Let’s be honest, Tai Tuivasa is a little pudgy. He’s got a belly. Punch his body, kick it, and watch him melt away like ice cream on the stove top. It won’t take many and it won’t take long.”
And as I said, it worked wonders. Gane committed to the body early with the kicks and Tuivasa wilted. While Gane found the finish up top to the dome of Tai Tuivasa, it was the body work that exhausted him, lowered his hands, and broke the number three heavyweight contender.
What I think was more important for Ciryl Gane was the knockdown he suffered in round two. It was very inspiring from both Tuivasa and Gane in their different ways. For Gane it showed that he isn’t going to quit when knocked down. When the going gets tough, the tough get going as the old expression goes. Gane took the knockdown, popped back up and hurt Tuivasa to the body and stymied Tuivasa’s onslaught.
Gane had very little adversity in his UFC run, even in his title fight loss against Francis N’Gannou. While he was taken down and that cost him the fight, it wasn’t real adversity. He wasn’t damaged on the ground and wasn’t ever in an opportunity where Gane was in danger. Tuivasa hurt Gane. In the post fight speech, he even said as much. That knockdown will benefit Gane down the road when he inevitably has a tough fight against N’Gannou, Miocic, or Jones who can find a way to make Gane pay.
Be sure to tune in Wednesday for Beforemath where we break down UFC 279’s main event between Khamzat Chimaev and Nate Diaz.