VIDEO: Jones and Gane face to face for the first time! What does the greatest fighter of all time say about his opponent before their fight?

The UFC has one of the biggest events of the year ahead of it, if not the biggest. The legendary Jon Jones, who we haven’t seen in the cage in over three years, is returning to action. Now, he’s had his first staredown with Ciryl Gano, and he assesses his qualities.

Coming up on Sunday morning. Jon Jones is back and will make his first appearance at heavyweight. He’ll be challenged by Ciryl Gane, the last man to fight for the UFC heavyweight title. He was no match for Francis Ngannou then, and now he faces a much tougher opponent.

Jones is seen as the best fighter of all time and he’ll be looking to prove it this weekend. However, it’s a question of how he’ll fare at heavyweight. There are several question marks. However, the 35-year-old American looked confident at the staredown.

It will be interesting to see how the three-year layoff affects him. But he goes into the fight as the favorite, not giving his opponent much of a chance. Especially after Ngannou was able to control him on the ground.

And what does Jones himself have to say about Gane? He’s studied the Frenchman closely and says he respects him. But he sees a recurring pattern in his fighting style that he’ll want to exploit. It’s worth noting that Jones is a master at studying his opponents. Daniel Cormier could tell you something about that.

“I realize that Ciryl doesn’t have a great number of fights. He relies on escapes, always trying to escape his opponent. He relies on his jiu-jitsu instead of defending takedowns. He showed that against Francis, who was able to keep him down for about six minutes. And Francis is not a man known for his ground control,” MMA Fighting quoted Jones as saying.

Afterwards, Jones praised his opponent’s offensive style, especially his footwork and on the feet. That, he said, is very rare for a heavyweight. However, he doesn’t believe Gane can sustain something like that for the entire fight.

“All the details in his skills are things I’ve seen before,” Jones said. And that statement is not good news for the Frenchman at all. But it may be all the more reason for the legendary fighter to surprise.

Source: UFC, MMA Fighting