Ciryl Gane became a professional wrestler 3 years ago, now he is going to fight for the UFC heavyweight title. What’s his story?

Ciryl Gane is moving through his MMA career incredibly fast. With 10 professional fights under her belt, she’s only been in the sport for a short time, yet she’ll be fighting Francis Ngannou for the heavyweight title at the upcoming UFC 270. What’s his story?

A title challenger at 31? Nothing extraordinary, one would think. However, Ciryl Gane is exceptional. His story is very inspiring and is a great proof that it’s never too late to start doing something full time.

Most top fighters start martial arts before the age of 20, but the athletically gifted Frenchman has it different. He used to play basketball and football at the amateur level, that was about it.

It wasn’t until he was 24 that Gane got a taste for combat sports when a friend brought him to Thai boxing training. He was a furniture salesman before his prodigious talent was discovered. But the company he worked for was going bankrupt and he saw martial arts as a great way to make money.

In three years, the now UFC title challenger has notched up 13 wins in Thai boxing and never lost once.

However, such talent would be a shame in Thai boxing alone. Moreover, MMA is now more profitable. So the Frenchman has taken to it. He had his first professional fight in the Canadian TKO organization in 2018, when he was already 28 years old.

In his very first fight he fought for the heavyweight title, of course he won it and defended it twice. The 3-0 score couldn’t go unnoticed by the UFC, Gane ended all three fights early.

So he came to the UFC in 2019, had three fights in six months, won them all. He waited a year for his fourth fight, and managed to win that one too. The year 2021 was then all his.

In February, he beat Jairzinh Rozenstruk on points, and then he took on Alexander Volkov. There was a lot of media attention around him, plus the champion Francis Ngannou started to cause problems and the boss Dana White wanted to show him that he was not irreplaceable.

That’s why Gane was given the opportunity to fight Derrick Lewis for the interim title in August. However, he easily defeated him, winning by TKO in the third round.

He will fight Ngannou for the regular title on January 23. It’s worth noting that the two used to work in the same gym, training together regularly. So the fight will be very spicy. Moreover, both have interesting life stories. In short, there is a lot to look forward to.

Will Gane become the new champion?

Source: UFC Generation, UFC, Sherdog