Fans think Jon Jones will delay his heavyweight debut even longer after Ciryl Gane’s knockout win against Tai Tuivasa at UFC Paris.
Gane, 32, knocked out Tuivasa in a back and forth fight at the UFC's inaugural event in France. 'Bon Gamin' was doing his best to stay out the way of Tuivasa's power from the opening bell, but that didn't last long as he was knocked down for the first time in his UFC career in the second round. Gane recovered well by hurting Tuivasa with strikes of his own to produce one of the best rounds of the year.
In the third round, Gane put Tuivasa down with consecutive right hands and followed up with a flurry of punches on the ground to force the stoppage. It marked Gane's first win since losing out on the heavyweight title to former teammate Francis Ngannou in January. An interim title fight against Jones seems plausible for Gane with current champion Ngannou sidelined due to injury, but some fans think Jones won't fight at the weight class after the Frenchman's win.
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"That Gane performance just delayed Jon Jones heavyweight debut by at least six months. Bro is looking at his squat rack right now debating if this s*** is even worth it," one user wrote. Another commenter agreed by replying: "This is a fair point. Jon would have such a tough time with Gane never mind Ngannou".
Jones - who is widely considered the greatest MMA fighter ever - hasn't fought in the UFC since making the last defence of his light-heavyweight title against Dominick Reyes at UFC 247 in February 2020. 'Bones' vacated his belt later that year and has been expected to move up to heavyweight since, but he is yet to debut at the weight class.
"When Jones first spoke about making the move and Stipe [Miocic] was champion most people thought he could probably win that. Then all of a sudden the division had all this turnover, veterans retiring/losing and new killers all took their place. Now it looks hard as f*** for him," another user commented. A final fan wrote: "Jones is only going to return to tarnish his legacy. There's no reason to risk it since most people consider him the goat."
